Of Armour and Chains
by InTheName
Summary: Regina's threats and frame-jobs aren't having the effect she wanted. With the Dark Curse at stake, she decides to try a softer, more manipulative approach to drive Emma Swan out of town. After all, giving people the benefit of the doubt has only ever ended with them taking a hell of a lot more. Set post 1x02. Cross-posted to AO3.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Mom, we have to talk."

Regina looked up from the newspaper she was reading. Sidney Glass had been letting his standards fall recently. Really, Granny painting her store-front a new shade was not as controversial a topic as Sidney was hyping it up to be.

"Are you referring to your running away to find your birth mother without so much as a note? Or perhaps when you skipped school and went to spend the day at your fort, again without telling me?" Regina asked coolly, raising one eyebrow in challenge.

"I'm already grounded for that. No, this is about Emma." Henry said, not backing down.

"She's not here to stay, Henry," Regina sighed. "I'm your mother. She gave you up."

"She is staying, actually." Henry replied, unfazed. "For a week, at least. I'm going to keep spending time with her, whether I'm grounded or not. So, I think you should invite her to dinner."

"Henry, that is out of the question" Regina started. "I will not have this woman getting comfortable, or thinking she's welcome in my home."

"Our home," Henry corrected. "And I'm either going to sneak out and see her, or you can have her over here where you can supervise. Just give her a chance, mom. I think you'll like her if you just try."

"This is not about me _liking_ her." Regina countered. She reached across the island to place her hand atop Henry's. "I don't want you to get hurt, dear. I don't want you getting invested in this fantasy where she takes you in, just to be heartbroken when she inevitably leaves."

"Maybe she just needs a reason to stay," Henry offered quietly. He pulled his hand from beneath hers and lowered his gaze. Regina knew well enough the hurt in his eyes as they stared holes into her coffee mug. She recognized it as well as if they had drilled directly into her heart.

"Do you really hate me so much that you would gamble on a stranger who gave you up, rather than stay here with me?" Regina asked softly. Henry's eyes shot up in surprise, meeting her gaze once more to see his own hurt mirrored there.

"That's not it, mom…" Henry said hesitantly. He was clearly warring with himself internally. "I love you, even if you just pretend to love me…"

"Henry, you know that's not true." Regina said, feeling a tug at her heart.

"Well you know you can't ignore Emma," Henry said, dismissing the topic. "The more you shut her out of my life, the more she is going to fight to stay."

Regina let that thought mull over for a second.

"Okay, Henry. Tomorrow night, Miss Swan may join us for dinner. Now go get ready for school."

That evening, Regina sat in her study with a glass of scotch, revisiting her earlier conversation with Henry. She let her head drop back to rest against the back of the couch and sighed. Her son had a point. Miss Swan was getting increasingly determined with each move Regina threw her way. Her tactics were increasingly less effective; her threats were falling on deaf ears, if the return of time was anything to go by. Perhaps a softer, more subtle approach was in order. A firm, but friendly one. One that invited Miss Swan in to observe their family, dissuade her uncertainty of Henry's wellbeing, and allowed her to leave Storeybrooke with a clean conscience. An agenda that was increasingly pertinent, if Gold had been right in his insinuation that Emma Swan was exactly what she was most afraid of.

The Evil Queen was not a stranger to manipulative tactics. Not by far. Though her skills had lain dormant for the better part of 30 years, she could still con a mark with the best of them. It was like riding a bike. She'd offer truce, convince Miss Swan that she was sweeter than a pot of honey. Someone who wouldn't hurt a fly. She'd put on a performance that would give Meryl Streep a run for her money. Soon, Miss Swan would be asking herself how she could have ever entertained the notion that Regina was, in fact, an Evil Queen.

"Emma!"

Emma turned around at her name. She paused mid-bite of her bear-claw and scanned the sidewalk for the person who had caught her attention.

"What's up kid?" Emma mumbled, mouth full of the apple-flavoured pastry.

"What are you doing for dinner tonight?" Henry asked. He was practically jumping up and down, despite his slight panting from his run to catch up to her.

"Tonight? I don't have any plans…" Emma replied.

"Come over for dinner." Henry said, as his breathing began to slow down to a resting pace.

"I don't think your mother would like me crashing your dinner, kid."

"She's the one who invited you! Come at 6:00pm sharp," Henry said with excitement. "I have to get to school. See you tonight!"

The kid ran off again, leaving Emma shell-shocked in the middle of the sidewalk. She took another bite of her bear-claw.

5:55pm

Regina checked the clock for the third time in the span of a minute. Her lasagna was in the oven, set to be done at exactly 6:15pm. The wine was decanting, her favourite Pinot Noir would pair nicely with the meal. She'd be needing more than one glass to get through the evening, that was for sure.

She began fussing over the bruschetta appetizer. The baguette slices were perfectly toasted and she was obsessing over the tomato mixture on top. Satisfied with the arrangement, she shaved parmesan on top. Now the appetizer was perfect, just as the rest of the meal would be.

There was a knock at the door.

5:57pm

She's early. Well that's just bad form. Regina smoothed her apron and started toward the front door. She was still in her work clothes, a silk, dusty blue blouse with a black pencil skirt and heels. She'd started on the meal as soon as she'd gotten home, and now there was no time to change.

"I'll get it!" Henry came bounding down the stairs in a whirlwind of excitement. If Regina were to look objectively at the situation, she might consider it nice how excited he was to have Emma over for dinner. It had been so long since he'd been excited about anything. But objectivity had not served Regina well, and giving people the benefit of the doubt always ended with them taking a hell of a lot more.

"Hey kid," Emma flashed a warm smile down at Henry as she gave him a sideways hug. "Madam Mayor, thank you for inviting me to dinner." Emma's smile dimmed noticeably to a polite stretch of lips straining across teeth.

"It was Henry's idea," Regina admitted, armed with her own polite smile. It wasn't going to be easy, getting Emma to trust her, not with the multitude of threats Regina had thrown her way. And after the stunt Regina had pulled the other day… Suffice it to say Regina had her work cut out for her. But Regina was always one to step up to a challenge. "Please, come in. I'll take your coat."

Emma removed her red motorcycle jacket, revealing a plain sweater and her usual jeans. Emma handed her jacket over to Regina with a mumbled "Thanks."

Regina hung up the jacket in the closet as Henry started rattling off details of his school day to Emma and pulled her toward the living room.

"…and then we painted the bird houses with Miss Blanchard and I chose a blue paint, it was just like the colour of Superman's suit…"

Regina felt a pang of envy. Henry hadn't been this chipper with her recently, not for a long time actually. She re-centered herself, rolled back her shoulders to stand up straighter and resolved herself for the evening ahead. She strolled past Emma and Henry in the living room and went into the kitchen. She picked up the tray of perfectly arranged bruschetta with four small plates and brought it out to the living room, setting it down on the coffee table. Henry took exactly 0.02 seconds before diving right into the appetizer. Emma followed suit soon after, taking one and placing it on her plate in front of her.

"…then Grace accidentally knocked over my birdhouse so the paint is a little smudged. It's not going to dry properly now, but I guess it will just be unique?"

Regina went back to the kitchen and poured two glasses of red wine. She took off her apron and took a quick swig before bringing the wineglasses to the living room, playing the gracious hostess.

"…and then in math class Joey wouldn't stop interrupting our teacher, and we didn't get through the lesson so at the end of class Mr. Meyer gave us extra homework!"

"I thought you said you didn't have math homework tonight." Regina arched her eyebrow as she passed a glass of wine to Emma and perched on the arm of the unoccupied chair across from Henry.

Henry quieted and looked guiltily at the ground.

"I expect you'll be sure to finish it before bed, young man. Am I right?" Regina chastised.

"Yes, mom." Henry replied.

"So, Miss Swan, you're a bail bondsman back in New York?" Regina prompted.

"Bail bondsperson." Emma corrected.

"Dangerous profession." Regina said. Emma's eyes narrowed defensively. "I'm sure you have a story or two of hard-to-catch fugitives. Ones that are appropriate for a ten-year old's ears?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm sure I do…" Emma trailed off, thinking back. "Actually, this one time there was this guy who was on the run and dressed in drag for a month straight. It's actually a funny story how I caught him…"

Regina let her mind wander as she stopped listening to Emma's story. She smiled and nodded at the appropriate times, but her focus was on Henry. He was looking at Emma like she walked on water and shit sunshine.

 _Beep beep beep!_

Regina was startled out of her daze by her timer going off.

6:15pm.

"Okay Henry, why don't you set the table?" Regina said. She went to take the lasagna out of the oven. As she was bent over, she noticed Emma had followed her into the kitchen. And she was staring.

"Uh, what can I do to help?" Emma said, a slight blush appearing on her cheeks.

"Nothing, Miss Swan. I've got it covered." Regina replied as she stood with the freshly baked lasagna.

The rest of the dinner went well. The conversation flowed steadily, if a little awkwardly. It was mostly Henry chattering away with Emma, with Regina interjecting at lulls to move the conversation forward. Growing up as a noblewoman, and ultimately becoming Queen, had prepared Regina to put on the hostess persona like a second skin. Regina brought out an apple pie for dessert with vanilla frozen yogurt, giving Henry and Emma generous proportions while opting for none herself. Henry peered skeptically down at his dish before Regina caved and took a bite of his first. Satisfied with the poisonless state of his pie, Henry ate ravenously, as if he'd not gone for seconds of lasagna earlier. Regina watched with a muted warmth, he really was growing up so fast.

"Henry, it's time to finish that math homework," Regina said as Henry finished his dessert.

"Aw, just five more minutes?" Henry whined.

"Now, Henry." Regina said. "Say goodbye to Miss Swan."

Henry gave Emma a hug and whispered something Regina couldn't hear. Regina felt that all-too-familiar sensation of being on the outside looking in. Her right hand clenched tighter around her wine glass as she downed the last few gulps. As Henry ran up the stairs toward his room, Emma made her way to the door.

"Miss Swan, would you care for a glass of cider?" Regina asked. She saw the skepticism written on Emma's face. "Or perhaps something stronger?"

"I think I should get going, madam Mayor." Emma said.

"Please, Miss Swan." Regina said. She stood up from her spot at the table and walked over to the buffet that housed her scotch. She put ice in two glasses and filled them with a generous amount of her fine scotch. She walked over to Emma and handed her one of the glasses. "I believe I have amends to make with you."

"This sounds familiar." Emma muttered, lifting the glass to take a sip. Regina started walking toward the study, putting more sway in her hips than was strictly necessary. She looked over her shoulder to check if Emma was following. She was not. Emma was watching her walk away.

"Coming?" Regina prompted.

Regina led them to sit on the couch in the study, but not before closing the door so that Henry wouldn't be able to hear their conversation should he try eavesdropping. Regina made sure to sit on the far side of the couch, facing the door.

"I am very protective of my son, Miss Swan." Regina started. "I want what's best for him and I am quick to jump on the defensive—or, more often, offensive. You asked how I got this way. Believe me, I have good reason… Regardless, I have behaved poorly. What I did, it hurt both you and Henry. I see that now."

"Is this you apologizing?" Emma asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Take it as is or not at all, Miss Swan." Regina said.

"For real this time?" Emma probed.

"I realize I have not given you cause to trust me on this. I do not expect you to believe me, Miss Swan. Rather, I will trust you. You said you were not here to take my son from me, you just wanted to ensure he was alright. I will trust you to keep your word on that." Regina said. She held eye contact with the woman across the couch from her. Emma looked shocked, that obviously hadn't been what she had been expecting.

"Oh, okay," Emma said cautiously.

"Why don't you come by tomorrow morning and walk Henry to school?" Regina offered.

"No tricks?" Emma asked.

"No tricks, dear." Regina nodded. "Consider it a proverbial olive branch. School starts at 8:15 am. I'll expect you here no later than 7:45 am."

"Will do, madam Mayor." Emma said. She finished the last sip of scotch and rose from where she had been sitting. "Thank you for the dinner invite, the lasagna was delicious."

"Family recipe." Regina lied. She stood up as well and opened the door to the study. Emma walked through the doorway, her arm brushing against Regina's as she passed. Emma didn't seem to notice, but Regina did. She'd been taking notice of every detail this evening, collecting intel on how best for her plan to play out. She hadn't missed how Emma checked her out as she removed the lasagna from the oven, or how a slight sway of the hips had captured Emma's attention. This interesting development called for a change in approach. Building trust was hard. Seducing someone, however, now that was another ballgame. Regina knew well the effect she wielded over others, when she wanted to. And she knew that lust could cloud rational thought in a heartbeat.

"Goodnight, Miss Swan." Regina said, with a true to form Evil Queen smile.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Emma fumbled with her keys to the bug. Finally getting the key to unlock the door, Emma dropped into the driver's seat. She felt almost as if she were in a daze. That had been a weird conversation, not one she had expected. Though, she hadn't exactly foreseen the dinner invitation either. Emma wasn't buying it. The mayor doing a 180 overnight and making a peace offering? No way. Something was up, and Emma wasn't going to wait idly for the other shoe to drop.

She drove to Mary Margaret's apartment absent-mindedly. She was still processing every detail of the evening. She was running through it in her mind, from the moment Henry opened the door, to Regina feigning interest in their conversation over the hors d'oeuvres, Regina bending over to take the lasagna out of the oven in her skirt and 3 inch heels, the near-painfully awkward conversation while they ate, Henry's cryptic whispered message, and the apparent cease fire to end the evening. Regina hadn't been engaged in any of the conversation over the course of the evening, but she'd been observing, watching for something. The question was: what?

Emma grudgingly opened her eyes and grabbed her phone from her nightstand. She blinked several times before the fuzzy lines turned into a warning that she'd overslept. Damn it.

Shooting out of bed faster than she realized her body was capable of, Emma grabbed her jeans off the ground and wrestled them up her legs. She was going to be late to pick up Henry if she didn't get out the door in the next 5 minutes. She quickly threw on a sports bra and a t-shirt from her drawer, not stopping to check which one. As long as it was clean, it would do. Emma stopped at the washroom to quickly brush her teeth before sprinting out the door.

Emma was rolling along Mifflin street, approaching the driveway of 108, when she saw a runner on the road. Slim build, not too tall. Dressed in tight, three-quarter length, black leggings and a near-see-through, white tank top that purposefully displayed the thin-strapped, red sports bra underneath. Running in the middle of the goddamned road. Emma felt the frustration boiling up inside her as she slowed to a crawl behind the runner. That is, until her heart stopped when the runner looked over her shoulder and waved. Regina.

Emma pulled into the driveway as Regina ran up to the walkway and started with some post-run stretching. Emma groaned as she cut the ignition and exited her car.

"Morning, Regina." Emma greeted flatly. "I, uh, don't think I'm early…"

"No, Miss Swan," Regina said, a little out of breath. And damn if that didn't shoot a shiver straight down Emma's spine. "You're right on time."

Regina righted herself from the leg stretch she'd been engaged in and moved to unlock the front door.

"Honestly, I didn't expect you to be on-time. I figured I would have a 15-minute grace-period." Regina said. "It appears I underestimated you, Miss Swan."

Regina opened the door just enough for one person to pass through and held the door open as she beckoned Emma to come in. Emma followed suit, pausing at the mayor's audible intake of breath at their proximity as she made her way inside. Regina was only a few inches away, looking up into Emma's eyes. Emma was close enough to see a sheen of sweat on the mayor's forehead from her run, the slight flush of pink in her cheeks, close enough to notice the rise and fall of Regina's chest as her breathing returned from its laboured pace, close enough to…

Regina stepped ever so slightly forward, her gaze lowering to Emma's lips, and closed the front door.

"Please excuse the mess, Miss Swan. Henry has a soccer game tonight. Between his school bag and his soccer bag, I'm afraid he's taken over half the front entrance." Regina said as she turned away, walking toward the kitchen. Emma glanced down, seeing the bags that had obstructed the door from opening fully. That moment had only been a few seconds, but it had seemed to drag on forever. Whatever the hell that was, it had thrown Emma for a loop. That was most definitely not part of Operation Cobra…

"Is Henry ready?" Emma asked, following Regina into the kitchen.

"I'll go check," Regina said. She quickly poured two cups of coffee from her programmed coffee-maker and placed one on the counter in front of Emma. "Milk and cream are in the fridge, sugar's in the cupboard left of the fridge."

Emma watched as Regina left to go upstairs, her gaze falling to the woman's derriere before Emma shook her head and cleared herself from her daze. What was Ms. Mills playing at? There was no doubt in Emma's mind that every move was intentional, she could see it in the calculated look in Regina's eyes. Emma's internal lie-detector had gone off when Regina pretended she hadn't expected Emma on-time and Emma knew that Henry had taken his schoolbag with him upstairs to do his math homework after last night's dinner. For all her talk of trust and peace offerings, this woman was still on the offensive.

Footsteps down the staircase jostled Emma out of her own head and spurred her to go to the fridge and fix up her coffee. When Regina entered the kitchen, Emma was leaning back against the counter, taking a sip.

"Henry will be just a few minutes."

Silence hung heavy between them as each took a long drink from their mugs.

"So, you run." Emma commented, initiating small talk once she could feel the caffeine making its way to her veins.

"Very observant, Miss Swan." Regina replied with a smirk.

"Are you… what do you call it? Training? For a race or something?" Emma probed.

"I thought you'd be well-versed in running." Regina said.

"What makes you say that?" Emma challenged. It was too early for snide remarks, honestly. Maybe two more coffees and Emma would be able to let remarks alluding to her nomadic lifestyle roll off her back.

"You have a runner's body." Regina said, the smirk returning. "And with your chosen profession, I would have thought running after fugitives was a near-daily exercise."

"Oh," Emma blushed at the backhanded compliment. "Well, I don't choose to run in my downtime…"

"To answer your question, yes I am training for a race. A half-marathon." Regina said.

"Impressive. That's, what, 13 miles?"

"13.1 miles, actually." Regina muttered. Emma finished her coffee and went over to the sink to wash it. "Oh, don't worry about that, dear. I'll just toss it in the dishwasher."

"Okay." Emma said. She started to fidget, no longer knowing what to do with herself.

"Hey Emma!" Henry said as he bounded down the stairs. "I'm ready to go."

"Henry, don't forget you have soccer practice tonight after dinner." Regina reminded.

"Right." Henry said, rushing to put his shoes and coat on in the front hall. "Let's go Emma!"

"Thanks for the coffee."

When Emma and Henry had reached the next street over, they gave up their pretense of discussing the upcoming soccer game and Henry's love of the sport.

"Okay kid, what's going on?" Emma asked.

"I convinced my mom to let me see you, as long as she thinks she's in charge and supervising them." Henry said, a mischievous smile on his face.

"Yeah, I got that." Emma said. "First question: why? Second: how?"

"For intel, of course!" Henry said. "Who was it that said, know thy enemy, or whatever? As for how, I'm not really sure. She didn't put up much of a fight on it, honestly."

"That seems suspicious." Emma muttered. "And what did you mean last night when you whispered 'onto phase two of Operation Cobra'?"

"Well, I've convinced the Evil Queen to let us spend time together. So, we can get into the real work of figuring out how to break the curse!" Henry said excitedly.

"How are we supposed to do that with your mom supervising our every visit?" Emma questioned.

"She's not here now, is she? And besides, we still have the advantage. She doesn't know about Operation Cobra." Henry said.

"I don't know, kid." Emma said. "Sounds to me like we're at a disadvantage. We don't know why your mom went so easily from trying to drive me out of town to driving me home after Sunday dinner."

"Mom didn't drive you home after dinner. And it wasn't on Sunday, it was a Monday…" Henry said, his brow furrowed in confusion.

"It was a figure of speech." Emma defended. She decided it was probably best for her to not stroke the suspicions that Regina was up to something. She would keep this case to herself; she didn't want Regina thinking she was poisoning her son against her.

"No, it's not." Henry challenged.

"How do you know? It could be." Emma said.

"Figures of speech are common phrases." Henry said.

"Maybe colloquially. Rhetorical figures of speech are actually… you know what, never mind. I was trying to be clever. If Storybrooke's curriculum is anything like the Phoenix GED program, you'll be hearing about it." Emma sighed.

"I doubt it. I'm ten. We're learning about sentence structure and doing weekly vocabulary tests…" Henry said.

"Well here's a new word for you: killjoy" Emma replied.

"I already know that word…" Henry said smugly.

"Okay kid, well why don't you go learn new words then?" Emma said as they approached Henry's school.

"See ya later, Emma!" Henry said as he ran toward the doors. Emma chuckled. The kid was funny.

Regina walked up to the counter at Granny's, the echo of the bell that announced her entrance ringing in her ears in the near-empty diner. Soon enough, Ruby shuffled her way from the back to take her order: a purposefully complicated espresso-based beverage. Regina glanced down at her watch and didn't flinch when the bell caused ripples in the still air. Instead, she glued her eyes to her phone and feigned frustration at a fictional message.

"Does the Storybrooke Mayor's office douse its fires with coffee?"

"Very funny, Miss Swan." Regina replied, not looking up from her phone. "Even civil servants get coffee breaks."

"What can I get for you, Emma?" Ruby asked from the espresso machine a few feet away.

"Coffee, black, and one of those delicious bear-claws you gave me the other day." Emma said. Emma turned back to face Regina as Ruby went back to fixing up the mayor's coffee. Regina kept avoiding eye contact, seemingly engrossed with formulating a response on her phone. "So, where is the fire? My guess is… the Mirror has run out of material now that you're no longer running a smear campaign ."

"Duly noted, Miss Swan." Regina said, finishing typing her fictitious reply before looking up to meet green eyes in an unamused gaze. "While you may have been a fine bail bondsman—"

"Bail bondsperson." Emma muttered. Brown eyes flashed, the only indication that the brunette had heard the correction.

"A sleuthing detective, you are not." Regina finished.

Emma just stared, silently waiting for Regina to continue. Regina sighed and rolled her eyes.

"If you must know," Regina caved. "My babysitter for tonight cancelled."

"Important city business to attend to?" Emma asked.

"I'm not a nun, Miss Swan. I have a date." Regina said in a huff.

"On a Tuesday night? My, Storybrooke is quite the hopping place." Emma teased.

"Being a full-time mayor and a full-time single mom doesn't leave a lot of room for… leisure activities. One must be… flexible." Regina said, with a small smirk. She quickly schooled her features back to neutral. "Unfortunately, it also means rescheduling nights out when the babysitter cancels."

"I could do it." Emma offered nonchalantly. Regina allowed herself a small smile, passing it off as grateful. Emma was playing right into her hand. This woman was going to be gone before the week was out. Really, it was almost too easy.

"I wouldn't want to take you away from your other commitments here in town." Regina pretended to protest. "Doesn't Mary Margaret have a standing board game night with all the teachers on Tuesdays?"

"Order up!" Ruby called, placing Regina's coffee on the counter haphazardly before hurrying away to get Emma's.

Emma snorted at that. "Of course she does. It's not a problem, I can babysit for you. What time do you want me?"

Regina leaned in toward Emma, reaching for the coffee that had been placed just beside Emma's elbow resting on the counter. "7:00pm sharp. Henry will have already had dinner, his homework is to be done before he plays any videogames, and his bedtime is at 9:00pm, no later. I should be home by midnight." She had straightened up and was curiously watching the light blush appearing on Emma's cheeks. She placed her hand lightly on Emma's free elbow, the one not supporting her weight, creating an artificial sense of intimacy. "Thank you, Miss Swan."

With that, Regina left Granny's diner with a smile on her face.

Regina was pacing around her vault. She checked her watch impatiently.

 _9:15pm_

It had been two hours since Emma had shown up at Regina's, late. Regina reminisced on the way Emma's eyes had raked down her figure when she'd opened the door, any excuses for her tardiness silently falling off her tongue as her jaw dropped slightly open. Regina had taken half an hour just deciding what to wear. A half hour well spent, apparently. Emma had been quick to compose herself, but the damage had been done. Regina had let a knowing smirk grace her red lips as she revelled in the light blush appearing again on Emma's complexion. Pink was definitely this woman's colour.

Regina had settled on a simple black dress with a V-neck deep enough to show a hint of cleavage—nowhere near the plunging necklines of the Evil Queen's wardrobe, but eye-drawing nonetheless. It was form-fitting but not tight, hugging her curves while leaving something to the imagination. And paired with the black stilettos, she was banking on Emma imagining everything.

Regina had faked being flustered and in a rush to head out. But she had made sure to stop and thank Emma on her way out, mustering all her deceptive skills to put sincerity in her voice. She'd stepped ever so slightly too close to be cordial on her way out of the door, furthering her new tendency to invade Emma's personal space. She'd called goodbye to Henry, telling him to behave for Emma on her way out. God only knew what the two of them were getting up to tonight. With any luck, Henry's homework would get done and Emma's concerns dissuaded. In a perfect world, perhaps.

When the Evil Queen had cast the curse, perfection had been her intention. However, she'd long since learned that this world was not all she'd hoped it would be. Maleficent had been right in her warning. There was a void that could not be filled, though Henry came close. Truthfully, the void had been residing within her chest before the curse and having Henry now, even with him hating his cold mother, was as close to being loved as Regina had ever felt. She was not about to let Emma Swan, with her sunshine locks and warm smile, steal him away.

Regina fidgeted with her watch again. She should have brought something else with which to kill time while on her "date". The small book she'd managed to fit in her purse hadn't lasted her the two hours—it didn't help that she'd already read it many times over the years. An old favourite now seemed derivative. The previously complex characters paling in comparison to those frustrating her currently. And her top-of-the-line phone was without reception. Typical.

Regina paced some more, attempting to relieve some restless energy, before she decided she'd waited long enough. She was ready to move on to the next phase of her plan.

 _9:27pm_

Emma sighed as she slumped down on the living room couch. She may have played video games with Henry (after homework and Operation Cobra work) and they may have lost track of time, which may have resulted in Henry staying up past his bedtime…

Regina was not going to be pleased. If she found out, of course. She had said she'd be home by midnight, so there was a very real possibility of her never finding out. Emma grinned to herself as she turned on the television.

Emma surfed through the limited selection of television channels, settling on a rerun of _Friends_. She was ready to wind down for the evening, having spent more time than she would have liked on fourth grade mathematics and English. Once Henry's homework was done, they'd talked about Operation Cobra, requiring a different kind of mental energy. She was all for getting to know the kid, fostering his imagination or whatever that Dr. Harper (or whatever his name was) had been saying. But she'd drawn the line when Henry wanted to go snooping through his mother's room.

Emma was startled from her musings when the front door opened, causing her to jump inside her skin. In an instant, she had turned off the television and was cautiously approaching the front entry as if she were clearing a room. With a quick breath in, Emma rounded the corner expecting the worst.

"Jesus Christ," Emma exhaled.

"I didn't mean to startle you, dear." Regina whispered as she hung her coat up.

"I just didn't expect you to be back this early," Emma said.

"Neither did I," Regina replied.

"Bad date?" Emma asked.

"You don't know the half of it," Regina said. She started walking toward the kitchen. Emma wasn't sure if she was supposed to follow or leave.

"Uh, well I'll get going then and leave you to it. Thanks for letting me spend time with Henry. He's a great kid," Emma said. She reached for her jacket hung up in the closet.

"Miss Swan, I did not plan for my evening to end at 9:45pm. Wine? I hope you like white," Regina replied from the kitchen.

"We've all been there. Was he completely self-absorbed, taking up the whole conversation? You know, I once had a blind date where I said no more than five sentences the whole evening. And that included 'Nice to meet you' and 'Goodnight'." Emma rambled as she slowly walked toward the kitchen, feeling oddly similar to a lamb being brought to slaughter. Somewhere in the back of her mind, something was humming beneath the surface, begging to be let out. Regina had two wine glasses on the counter, and was reaching into the fridge to pull out a bottle of white.

"No, _she_ wasn't self-absorbed," Regina said as she poured the wine. Her eyes locked with Emma's briefly at the corrected pronoun before returning her focus on the chardonnay.

"Well then, what was wrong with your would-be lady suitor?" Emma probed. Internally, she was kicking herself: lady suitor? What kind of dumb phrasing was that? Regina noticed, arching her eyebrow but withholding comment. Emma gratefully took a glass of wine offered and brought it to her lips.

"She was… distracted." Regina answered. Getting information out of this woman was like prying teeth. Though, she wasn't actively avoiding the questions.

"Was that not your intention?" Emma muttered not-quite-under her breath as she eyed Regina's outfit once more. A glint in brown eyes and the small twitch at the corner of red lips was all Emma needed to know she'd not been subtle enough. She could feel her face heating up and tried to calm it with a sip of chilled chardonnay.

"She kept glancing around the restaurant, as if she were expecting to run into someone. It appears my… would-be lady suitor," Regina drew out Emma's choice words. "is living in the closet. A rather cramped one, at that."

"Ah, yes that would put a damper on the mood," Emma said.

"Never been on a date with a woman in the closet?" Regina probed, a faint amusement lingering on her features. She took a slow sip from her glass as she awaited Emma's response.

"Uh, no. Can't say I have," Emma said, feeling a little uncomfortable with the turn in conversation. "There's always more fish in the sea. It's just a numbers game—isn't that what they say?"

"You may not have noticed, but this is a fairly small pond, dear." Regina pointed out. She shifted her weight, which brought her ever so slightly closer to Emma. "Not a lot of queer fish."

"Point taken," Emma said. "When you adopted Henry, was there a partner in the picture? Or did you intend to go it alone, if you don't mind me asking?" If Regina was opening up the floor for discussion, Emma was damn well going to take this opportunity to go fishing.

"Ah, well that is a rather long story," Regina stalled, apparently caught off guard.

"You said you didn't want your evening ending before ten," Emma offered.

"Yes, I suppose I did," Regina said, gazing down at her glass. She took a long sip of wine before continuing. "Long before Henry, I did have a partner I intended to spend my life with, have kids, grow old together, the whole thing."

"What happened?" Emma probed.

"It ended, prematurely," Regina said, cautiously pronouncing the words, almost as if warring to push them off her tongue, through her teeth. "After that, love was not in the cards for me. I wanted a child and decided not to wait to find The Next One."

"That must have been tough," Emma said, not willing to give this woman a break before getting the information she needed.

"It was worth it," Regina said softly. After a beat, she met Emma's eyes again with a renewed fire in her gaze. She took a step closer, bringing her close enough to touch if Emma had the whim to reach out. "Tell me, Miss Swan, why are you here?"

"I, uh, told you. I want to make sure Henry's okay," Emma replied, a little startled at the question, certainly caught off guard by the proximity. Regina took another step closer, and Emma answered with one step back. She felt the cold counter press against the small of her back.

"Over a glass of wine with his mother?" Regina prompted, one eyebrow raised in what was quickly becoming a signature look. She placed her now empty wine glass on the counter without breaking eye contact.

"It seemed rude, to turn you down," Emma justified.

"Indeed," Regina whispered, glancing down at Emma's lips as she took another step forward. Before Emma had a chance to retort, qualify her statement or otherwise quell the mayor's assumption, a gentle hand traced Emma's jawline up to the sensitive skin beneath her ear. Regina's thumb brushed against her cheekbone. Brown eyes sought out green. Emma felt very much like a deer staring at oncoming headlights, but she also felt something else. Something that stopped her from stopping this. "Wouldn't want to be rude…"

Regina took Emma's implicit permission to take the last step forward and seal the gap between them. Emma no longer felt anything but soft lips against her own.

Regina kissed her in gentle, slow movements, knowing exactly what she was doing. She pulled back slightly, leaning her forehead against Emma's. Their hair formed a curtain, making Emma feel like there was nothing more than them in this moment. Emma felt cool air where warm lips had been.

"Just so we're clear, this is an invitation into my bed, Miss Swan, not into our lives."

Emma wasn't sure exactly what compelled her to draw their lips together once more, but suddenly she felt fingertips slipping under the hem of her t-shirt, caressing the skin of her hips and she no longer cared to wonder. She let her head tip back, let her eyes fall shut, let the mayor lead her up the stairs to the second door to the left and straight on 'till morning.

* * *

Author's Note: Thank you for your patience with the update, for those of you following along. I'm but a grad student doing her best.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Fuck.

Little else crossed Emma's mind as she stared up at the ceiling above Regina's bed. In all their verbal sparring Regina gave as good as she got. So, it really was no surprise that her tenacity transferred comparably into the bedroom.

"I trust you won't slam the door on your way out, Miss Swan." Regina said from where she lay naked beside her. The way her name was uttered sternly was in sharp contrast to mere minutes earlier when 'Emma' fell softly from Regina's lips.

Emma didn't need to be asked twice; she knew the routine. She certainly didn't need to dignify her invitation to leave with a response. Rather, she dragged herself out of the unfamiliar but exquisitely comfortable bed. Emma quickly dressed herself, then grabbed her phone and keys from where they lay on the floor. With a quick glance over her shoulder, Emma left the room.

Once outside the mayor's house, she checked her phone.

 _1:07am_

Her tryst with the mayor had brought her to the wee hours of the morning without Emma even realizing the passage of time. It had been a while since Emma's attention had been so wholly consumed, if she were being honest with herself.

Emma walked over to her bug, wrestled opened the door and fell into the seat. As she turned on the ignition, she began processing how her evening had unfolded after telling Henry to go to bed. All throughout her nightcap with the mayor, her internal lie detector had been buzzing low in the back of her mind. What had set it off, Emma couldn't say for sure. But she knew she was being played, somehow.

And then Regina had kissed her.

Emma still felt a sense of disbelief at the turn of events. But she was not one to turn away a beautiful woman offering herself to her. It was all hauntingly familiar, the promise of pleasure without romance coming from the hands of a stranger. Emma Swan did not need to be wined and dined. She did not need to hear whispered sweet nothings before being left with nothing but pleasantly sore muscles and a hangover. So whatever deception Regina had delivered in conversation stood on separate feet from the ones that tangled with hers later that night.

Regina sat at her desk, staring blankly at the space in front of her. She'd just gotten back to the office from the mines. Her son had gone down into the structurally unsound tunnels, convinced she was hiding something and using public safety as a smokescreen. How was it that nothing she said was getting through to him? Of course, she _was_ hiding something in the mines and using public safety as a smokescreen… But that was beside the point. Her own son didn't trust her. And that hurt.

Clearly, Dr. Hopper was not succeeding in dissuading Henry of his delusions. And she'd been unsuccessful at dissuading Dr. Hopper from encouraging them. There wasn't much in this realm that Regina hated more than losing authority over her subjects—constituents. Her son, she could handle. But now he was gaining a following. First Miss Swan, then Dr. Hopper.

Regina's train of thought stopped cold in its tracks. Miss Swan.

This morning, she'd had Miss Swan right where she wanted: hurriedly leaving her bed. Sure, she'd had to give more away in the conversation to get Emma into her bed in the first place, but it had been a calculated loss. Give an inch, take a mile, so to speak. Now, she had an unwanted new deputy looking to stick around.

Regina had not foreseen these new developments in her carefully laid plan. And she'd lashed out. She'd tried to put Miss Swan in her place. Tried to wield her maternal rights and her authority as mayor over Miss Swan's attempts to insert herself in the expedition to save Henry. In a moment of desperation, when she'd yielded control over to Emma and allowed her to rush head first into the mines, she'd gotten a little too close, shown a little too much of her hand. The spark of recognition in Emma's eyes showed nothing had slipped past her. Now Regina was at a disadvantage.

She slid her hands to her cheeks, up and over her forehead to tangle in her hair. She leaned her elbows against her desk and sighed. She needed to regroup.

Then, the door to her office opened without warning. Regina quickly looked up and saw the very last person in this town she wanted to see.

"Miss Swan, if you have any business that needs my attention, please send it through the appropriate channels and refrain from barging into my office unannounced." Regina said, looking down to shuffle some papers on her desk.

"I'm not here on official business," Emma said hesitantly. She slowly walked toward the desk.

"Tell me, what could you possibly have to talk to me about that warrants an unscheduled meeting on the taxpayers' dime?" Regina asked.

"You were scared today," Emma stated, as she placed her hands against the dark wood of the desk. She was leaning over, in what was effectively a power stance.

"I was concerned for my son's safety, as any mother would be," Regina said, defensively. She stood up from her chair, refusing to give Emma the higher ground. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I should be getting back to him now."

"You were scared and you lashed out," Emma continued. "I can understand that. But I won't be spoken to with the disrespect you showed me today."

"I thought you weren't staying," Regina said, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. She started to walk around the desk, but Emma blocked her path. Regina's eyes flashed and her nostrils flared. She did not like being cornered against the side of her desk.

"I—uh, changed my mind" Emma stammered.

"Miss Swan, I thought I was clear last night. Our…encounter was not an invitation to put down roots." Regina said sternly. She sidestepped Emma, removing herself from where she'd been backed against her desk.

"This isn't about last night," Emma said. "This is about today."

"I don't think it is, dear." Regina said as she took a step closer to Emma. Now it was Emma who was cornered. "I think you came to Storybrook looking for a family. I think you're just like any orphan with mommy issues, clinging to the first person who makes you feel wanted. Are you playing up our night together with ridiculous notions of a romantic subtext? Let me be crystal clear, Miss Swan: you're not going to find what you're looking for here."

"Fuck you," Emma breathed. Her eyes were furious, her hands clenched into fists at her side.

"I believe you already have, dear." Regina said in a low voice.

"I didn't come here to join your little family, and that is not why I'm staying." Emma said. She didn't need to raise her voice to show her anger. "I'm under no pretenses of a beginning of a fucked up romance. I'm here because you treat people like they are less than the dirt beneath your high heeled feet. You try to convince others that they are inferior because you want to keep them at a distance. Not out of any sense of superiority, but because you don't know how to let people in. I'll bet you never learned how to love; not from your family, not from your partners. Well, it's better to be feared than loved, huh, madam Mayor? Also pretty fucking lonely."

Regina's temper was at its breaking point in an instant. Her entire body tensed. Her eyes widened in shock at the audacity of the new deputy to address her like this.

"You don't know the first thing about me or those I've loved," Regina whispered. The words were tight, controlled, and full of hatred.

"I know how to spot a broken woman, Regina." Emma said. The fury had left her voice. If she regretted what she had said, it didn't show. Rather, she had the air of someone who'd made her point and didn't need to flaunt it.

Regina walked toward the door, turning her back on her unexpected visitor. She paused, halfway to the exit and turned her head.

"Is that why you accepted the deputy position, Miss Swan? You think you can fix me?" Regina asked. The question was whispered as if to her own shoulder, but it still reached it's intended target. Emma just stood there, not having a response to offer. "That's what I thought."

Regina kept walking, turning the lights off and leaving Emma in the dark.

Regina was sitting at a table at Storybrooke's only bar, eyeing the entrance. A tea-light candle inside a short mason jar provided a poor attempt at mood lighting. The effect was more so one of a cheap, rushed shot at catering to the hipster crowd. It left much to be desired, but still the mayor was here on a Friday night, having scavenged a last-minute babysitter for the evening. This whole "friendship" thing took effort. Regina felt justified in never having sought one out before.

"Regina, I'm so sorry to keep you waiting!" One slightly-out-of-breath Kathryn rushed toward the table.

"It's been hardly any time," Regina said. It had been fifteen minutes. Enough time to order a drink and then send it back when the bartender hadn't made it up to snuff.

"I got a little held up at home," Kathryn explained as she draped her coat over the back of her chair. Just as she sat down, the waiter approached with the revised drink order. "How did you know I liked cosmopolitans?"

"Isn't that the official Girls Night beverage?" Regina shrugged. "It may be my first one, but I figured we should do it right."

"Off to a great start," Kathryn said with a smile.

"So, what was it that held you up at home, dear?" Regina asked.

"David," Kathryn said. She had a small, hopeful smile on her face. Regina echoed it with a grin of her own. "He remembered."

"Everything?" Regina probed.

"Enough," Kathryn admitted. "He said he wasn't leaving me that night, but then he had his accident. Regina, I hadn't dared hope for this."

"It sounds like you two are meant to be," Regina encouraged.

"I am a little nervous," Kathryn admitted. Regina placed her hand on top of Kathryn's across the table.

"I have full confidence that you two will be able to move forward from this and will be stronger for it. It just may take some time for you to get there," Regina said, pulling material from every romantic comedy she'd seen over the past 28 years. Admittedly, it was not a large selection; the mayor did not spend her time longing for epic romance.

"Thank you, Regina. It's really nice to have someone to talk to about this, someone so supportive." Kathryn said, her eyes practically spilling over with sincerity. Regina wasn't used to this display of gratitude. She looked down at her drink, bringing it up towards her lips to take a sip in place of a response. "Anyway, I'm sure you're tired of hearing about me."

"Nonsense, dear," Regina interjected.

"Tell me about you. How are you doing?" Kathryn asked.

"I'm doing well." Regina said simply.

"I heard about the debacle at the mines earlier, that must have been frightening," Kathryn sympathized.

"I was concerned for Henry's safety," Regina said. "But he wasn't hurt and doesn't seem too shaken up about it."

"I heard it was the new deputy, Emily Something, was the one to go into the mines?" Kathryn probed. At this moment, the aforementioned blonde entered the establishment. She glanced around and briefly locked eyes with Regina before heading toward the bar.

"Emma Swan," Regina grumbled. She took another sip from her drink.

"You don't seem grateful," Kathryn commented.

"I… It's complicated…" Regina said quietly. Her eyes were drawn back to the door as it opened for a new patron. She'd recognize that pixie cut anywhere. Mary Margaret did a quick glance around the room, Regina presumed she was looking for her newfound roommate, when her eyes landed on their table and widened in recognition and fright. She turned on her heel and was out of the door before she had found Emma at the bar.

"Complicated? She's been here, what is it now, a week? How could things possibly get complicated in that time?" Kathryn asked, bemused. Regina's reputation for passing judgement and holding grudges preceded her. But Kathryn seemed to be poking fun at the mayor, as if it were an endearing trait. How odd.

"It was complicated the moment she arrived in town," Regina said. She looked over to the deputy who was still trying to get the bartender's attention. It appeared she hadn't seen the entrance or abrupt exit of her friend. "You know what, I don't want to keep you from David tonight. You should be enjoying his return home. We can continue our Girl's Night another time."

"Are you sure? I don't want to bail on our plans…" Kathryn said, clearly just itching to return to her husband.

"Do not fret, dear." Regina said. "In fact, I see our new deputy over there. I think I do owe her a thank you, as you pointed out. Complications aside, she did save my son today." The words were near painful to say, but they did the trick. Kathryn seemed less guilty about leaving her new friend at the bar to reconnect with her husband.

Kathryn put her coat on and came around the table, engulfing Regina in an unfamiliar hug. Regina was stiff in the embrace, but offered a shy smile when they parted. With that, Kathryn left and Regina turned to her target. She straightened her shoulders, preparing herself for the damage control that was needed to recalibrate her plan.

"If you're awaiting Miss Blanchard, I believe she is halfway to Boston by now." Regina said as she approached Emma.

"What?" Emma said as she turned to face the mayor.

"Miss Blanchard arrived, took one look at the woman whose husband she nearly stole, and walked right out." Regina stated.

"David left Kathryn of his own choice, not from any pressure from Mary Margaret." Emma defended.

"Well, whatever the case, David reconsidered and Mary Margaret appears to be standing you up." Regina said.

"Thanks for the heads up," Emma said. She took a swig of her beer, placed the rest on the bar, and turned to leave. Regina placed a hand on her arm to stop her.

"It seems a waste to leave your drink practically untouched, considering how hard you had to work to get it." Regina said.

"I don't make a habit of throwing insults over beers." Emma said skeptically. Regina faced the bartender to signal for another drink.

"I'm not here to fight," Regina sighed. The bartender placed another Cosmo on the bar-top with a fear-induced efficiency. Regina gently grasped the stem and raised it in a cheers toward Emma. "I'm here to drink."

Glass hit glass, eyes met eyes, and each woman took a sip of their drink.

"I grew up in the foster system," Emma said. She broke eye contact and faced toward the bar.

"I am aware," Regina said, her brow knitting in confusion. She mirrored Emma's position on the bar stool next to her.

"I had a family until I was three, but they got pregnant with a kid of their own and sent me back. From then on, I was bounced around from home to home. If I was lucky, the locked fridge was stocked with food. If not, they had a locked closet to send the misbehaving children. When I went to each new home, I hoped quietly to myself that it would be better than the last. I thought that if I wished too loudly, it wouldn't come true." Emma let out a soft chuckle. "Turns out it didn't matter the decibel of the wish, I was routinely disappointed. I stopped wishing for a home. When I was older, I started running away. I didn't usually make it far before they dragged me back, kicking and screaming. Eventually, I managed to run away for good. I lived on the streets for a bit, getting by however I could. I told myself that it was better than any of my foster homes. And it was."

"Why are you telling me this?" Regina whispered, looking over toward the blonde.

"I never had a family. I couldn't wait to be out of the system. But some lucky kids, who grow up in a loving home, they don't leave their families the first chance they get. A foreign concept, for those of us who grew up neglected and abused." Emma continued, she met Regina's questioning gaze.

"I—," Regina started, eyes wide.

"Henry may be unhappy right now. He may think you're an Evil Queen. But he's not unloved. I don't think you need to worry about him leaving you just because he now has his birth mom in his life." Emma said. With that, she finished the last of her beer and left the bar.

Regina felt as if there were nowhere to hide. She felt vulnerable in a way she wasn't used to. She didn't wear it well. She brought her glass to her lips and downed the rest of her drink.

Fuck


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Regina closed her eyes and sighed as she lay white lilies on Graham's grave. She was no stranger to holding others' lives in her hands and making the choice to crush hearts to dust in her fist. In the Enchanted Forest, it could almost be considered a hobby. But a hobby was something mundane people used to pass the time in their pathetic, boring lives. She did not kill for sport, she killed for power and control.

There were not many regrets the Evil Queen carried with her in this life. The sacrifice of her father was one of them. Not initially. At first, in those first few years of the curse she felt like she'd won. Everything had been worth it to see Snow as a lonely school teacher, who passed through her days without passion or drive. But then she had found herself settling into a routine, her own footsteps eerily similar to the empty path walked by her imprisoned subjects. Only then had Regina started to consider that perhaps this was not her happy ending. That maybe she'd made the wrong call, that perhaps the death of her father by her own hand had not been worth it.

One.

Her stomach dropped out from underneath her. Her chest collapsed in on itself and she could not breathe.

Two.

Regina refused to entertain that notion for any longer than its conception. Rather, she had set out to find a child, to begin a family to give her that unconditional love she'd so secretly pined for all her life and to renew her purpose (the latter being the only reason she'd acknowledged).

But here she was again, losing her grip on her happy ending. Miss Swan was ruining everything, causing her carefully constructed life for fall to pieces around her. She'd lost Graham—not that she'd genuinely cared for him. She'd controlled him though, and that was close enough. And Miss Swan had gone and sparked the desire for freedom in her pet. She'd gone into a rage. She'd gone back to how she had always asserted control. She wondered if perhaps she had been wrong to.

One.

Her skin tightened around her bones. Her mouth replaced by desert.

Two.

She lived in a different world now, the morality was different. It wasn't an eye for an eye here. In Storeybrooke it was an eye for a carefully adjudicated trial and "ethical" punishment. Of course, she'd not exactly been considered moral in the Enchanted Forest, but wars had always been fought through the genocide of a rival kingdom. Maybe she'd crossed a line, killing townsfolk to instill fear. But it was not a line that was untreaded with the foot traffic of kings and queens of eras past.

She may not have been accountable to anyone in the Enchanted Forest, but here, she had a son. One who didn't know the cruelties of the rule and wars of the Enchanted Forest. Henry would never forgive her for Graham's death if he found out, and he would never understand. That alone was enough to give Regina pause and wonder whether her choice had been rash and unjustified. And thus brought on her now all too familiar regrets circling around her father.

One.

It was too much.

Two.

Regina turned around from the grave, heading toward her father's mausoleum to pay her respects that paled in comparison to all she owed him. She felt her resolve weakening, as if she'd left her fight with the flowers on Graham's tombstone.

Emma walked into Regina's office without knocking. She'd snuck past her guard dog secretary, Winnie, while she'd left her desk unattended to use the washroom.

Emma had successfully reunited Ava and Nicholas Zimmer with their father, despite Regina's attempts to send them to Boston child services. Regina had tried to stop her from doing what she knew was right, and she was damned well going to show the Mayor how wrong she'd been.

"Miss Swan, why are you not halfway to Boston with the Zimmer children right now? I believe I made the situation quite clear." Regina growled from her desk.

"I found their father." Emma said with a self-congratulatory smile on her face. She crossed her arms, completing the smug aura she was projecting. "They're staying with him."

"Do you have any idea how risky that was?" Regina seethed. She dropped her pen onto her desk and didn't move to stop it from rolling off. "Not every parent longs for the child they lost. You could have inflicted so much pain on those two kids. There is a reason we have protocols for child services, Miss Swan."

"It was risky, sure, but he wanted to be a father to those children once he got over the shock of it all." Emma said, defensively. Emma had come prepared for a fight. She wasn't exactly expecting a smile and pat on the back when she broke the news to the control-obsessed mayor.

"Did you ever consider that not everyone should be a parent? It isn't something you can just walk into one day on a whim." Regina countered, staring accusingly at the woman across from her.

"It wasn't a whim, he had time to think about it." Emma defended.

"Did he? You're telling me that after you told him this morning about the children he didn't know he had, he came to you of his own volition requesting custody of his daughter and son?" Regina asked skeptically.

"Not exactly…" Emma muttered.

"Why am I not surprised, Miss Swan. Tell me, when you ran for sheriff did you think that would put you above the law; that you wouldn't have to follow the rules? You need to start taking this job seriously." Regina said.

"I am taking this position seriously." Emma said. She slammed her hands onto Regina's desk, startling the mayor. "I have respect for the protocols but I have a greater respect for people. I believe that most people are fundamentally good; they will try not to hurt others, they'll be kind to strangers, and they'll step up when their children need them. Of course, there are always exceptions to any rule."

Emma stared pointedly into defiant brown eyes.

"You should thank your lucky stars that this worked out for you, Miss Swan." Regina said dismissively. "Most people act in their own self-interest, that doesn't make them inherently good or bad. The rules are there for a reason, I expect you to follow them."

"Of course, madam Mayor." Emma said, quickly feeling her energy deflate. She was tired. It had been a long day. She wasn't up for more of a fight. So she turned on her heel and left. She needed a stiff drink.

Weeks passed. Snow walked away unscathed from the unfounded murder charges. Emma and Regina kept fighting, no longer pretending they were on the same side. Leaves fell from the branches of trees. Every effort Regina made to stop Emma's progress to break the curse failed miserably. Regina may have successfully seduced the saviour into her bed, but it had not come with the blinders of infatuation that made Sidney Glass so easy to manipulate. Regina's loose grip on Storybrooke was becoming increasingly like trying to hold onto water.

"Mayor Mills?" Winnie, Regina's secretary, probed as she shyly snuck her head between the small crack of the door and its frame.

"What is it?" Regina snapped, as if she'd been ripped from her work instead of her rage-fueled reflection.

"The florist is here. He wants to know where you'd like the flowers?" Winnie answered. She was well accustomed to the Mayor's moods by now.

"The flowers…" Regina trailed off, confused.

"For the annual fundraising gala." Winnie replied. When the response wasn't met with recognition in the Mayor's eyes, Winnie continued. "Tonight. Hosted by the Mayor's office."

"Of course," Regina sighed. Her whole world was crumbling around her with every passing moment, but the show must go on. "I'll be right out."

Regina couldn't stand these events. She glanced down at her martini in hand, thinking she'd certainly need another to get through this dull conversation. But she raised her head with a renewed smile conveying a feigned interest in the district attorney's new case.

"So at first it did seem like your run of the mill tax-evasion but once I looked over the case personally, I immediately saw the pyramid scheme at hand." Mr. Spencer said, in a blatantly self-congratulatory manner.

Regina nodded along and gasped at the appropriate places. Her role at these functions was to wine and dine the powerful political figures in town, greasing the wheels for future transactions and making sure she had the right people in her corner. It reminded her of the life as Queen, before the passing of the King, that she'd not chosen for herself.

From across the room, she spotted the woman who was single-handedly dismantling her world. She'd come in a black suit and tie, the blouse as white as the graceful bird for which she was named. Regina suspected the girl had chosen the last name herself, perhaps it had given her comfort or held some meaning that instilled a sense of purpose. Whatever the motivation, Regina was sure it was a pathetic and misguided effort to find a home, even in just a name.

"Albert, this is such a fascinating case. I really would like to hear more about it. I'll get Winnie to contact Stephanie to arrange a meeting next week?" Regina flattered, gracefully exiting the conversation. She walked out of the main room, escaping the schmoozing and falsities. A notion she would never have entertained, let alone acted on a year ago. But if her reign was to come to an end, as it so seemed it might, what was the use sucking up to powerful men in sharp suits who looked her up and down as if she were a fine flank of steak when they thought she wasn't looking.

Emma surveyed the room full of Storybrooke's finest, dressed to the nines to pat themselves on the backs and throw money around like they couldn't possibly fathom another use for it. This was a world she didn't belong in, and she wondered how she'd gotten here.

She was still feeling rattled from August taking her to the forest, citing some bullshit about them coming into this world in a tree. It appeared he too had succumb to the delusion of the curse. It was ridiculous, and Emma resented the implication that it was her destiny to be responsible for anyone's happy ending other than her own. Well, hers and Henry's.

She walked over to the cash bar and signalled the bartender for a beer. She didn't see anyone here she wanted to talk to. But she did see some people who could give her useful intel on the Mayor.

As she approached some of the town council members, she spotted Regina talking to the attorney who'd tried Mary Margaret's case, well, until it was thrown out of court. Emma felt her heart start beating ever so slightly faster, sending loathing through her veins. Her eyes quickly appreciated the well-tailored red dress and black heels, before reminding herself of this woman's unprovable crimes.

Emma eased herself into the conversation between the council members, if a little awkwardly. They were discussing some zoning bylaw that was getting in the way of the condos that some big behind-the-scenes backer wanted built. Emma tried subtly steering the conversation toward the Mayor to gain intel, but was widely unsuccessful. The council members had little other to say about her than "that broad is a bitch to work with but damn if she doesn't get the job done." Charming.

Emma decided to excuse herself from the discussion when it was clear it was a fruitless effort. Not that any of them showed any disappointment at her departure. She searched for the nearest exit from the main room, following signs for the washroom. She was nearly there when she saw a soft glow of light outlining the door to the Mayor's office. Against her better judgement, she tried the door and, upon finding it unlocked, entered the room.

Regina stood by the fireplace, staring at a new piece of artwork that adorned the mantle. She was fiddling with something in her hand. Her head whipped around at the sound of the door opening to face the intruder. Recognition washed over her features and a fire burned in her eyes to match the one in front of her.

"Miss Swan," Regina chastised. Her fingers formed a protective fist around whatever she'd been holding.

"Regina," Emma said with a tenderness that betrayed her resolve to hate this woman. She felt a pull driving her movements forward toward the fireplace to stand beside her adversary. "Shouldn't the Mayor be attending her own fundraiser, not hiding away in her office?"

"Shouldn't the new sheriff be trying to integrate better into the town, and talking to key players of Storybrook?" Regina countered. She looked confused, unable to read the situation. Emma felt a small satisfaction at throwing the mayor off-guard.

"I could care less about playing along with the local politics," Emma said.

"I could tell." Regina said, returning to look at the painting.

"This new?" Emma asked, gesturing toward the artwork.

"It has recently entered my collection, yes." Regina replied.

"I don't recognize it," Emma said.

"No, you wouldn't, would you?" Regina asked rhetorically. "Unnamed painting, unknown artist. No context, no story, but you can feel the painter's pain."

"I wouldn't have pegged you as a patron of the fine arts," Emma said.

"There's something to be said about universal emotions, and the tools we use to evoke them. The instinct to connect… transcends realms." Regina said quietly. "What do you see, Miss Swan?"

Emma looked at the angry brush strokes in midnight blues and deep sea greens. She took in the senseless pattern, the flecks of metallic silver in stark contrast to the gloomy backdrop.

"I see long, lonely nights." Emma said. She glanced over at the Mayor, to find the brunette curiously studying her rather than the painting. "What do you see, Regina?"

"A broken heart." Regina said, breaking the eye contact and returning to look at the fire.

"Doesn't really line up with my sociopath theory," Emma joked. She wasn't trying to build bridges here. Really, she couldn't say what she was trying to do here.

"Oh please, Miss Swan. If villainizing me helps you justify your quest to take my son from me, by all means. Tell yourself what you have to in order to sleep at night. But do try to make the lies you tell yourself less absurd." Regina said, dismissively.

"Absurd? I have yet to see your conscience come out to play, Regina." Emma countered, her voice raised. "I know you've been the puppeteer, pulling the strings of those around you. I know you framed Mary Margaret. I know you set up Sidney to take the fall. I see you."

"If you could prove this, we would be having this conversation at the sheriff's department, not after hours in my office." Regina said, her jaw set.

"Do you even think about how your decisions affect Henry?" Emma pushed.

"Henry is all I think about!" Regina barked. There was no more patience left in her eyes, the tenuous calm between them evaporated. "Everything I do, is for Henry. All of my actions are in his best interest."

"You genuinely believe that, don't you?" Emma asked, slightly awed that her lie detector wasn't sounding the alarm with the one woman who never failed to set it off. "What's in your hand?"

"None of your business, Miss Swan." Regina snapped, turning her back to walk away. Her fist found its way to her heart as she made a move to leave the office. "Close the door on your way out. And douse the flame, it's a fire hazard."

Emma grabbed the woman's wrist before she made more than a step toward the door.

"What happened to that first night you had me over?" Emma asked. Sharp eyes met hers in challenge. Regina made a weak attempt at tugging her hand away. Emma held on with a loose grip.

"I thought I was clear that our night together was just that, one night." Regina said. Even with those distancing words, her eyes dropped to glance at the lips she'd once kissed. She quickly reset her features into an unrevealing mask, but Emma wasn't fooled.

"Before that. You said you would trust me." Emma challenged. She hadn't believed her the moment those words were spoken, all those weeks ago. She certainly didn't believe them now.

"I tried." Regina whispered. She cleared her throat and began again. "You said you wouldn't take my son from me. Trust is built, not given, Miss Swan."

"So it is." Emma agreed. She let her hand trace lightly from Regina's wrist to where her fingers curled in a fist. "And here we are, you trying to get me fired or drive me out of town at every turn, and I—."

"You went from reading fairy tales with my son to reading custody law." Regina accused. But she didn't remove her hand. Emma gently pried Regina's fingers from their fist and saw a small gold band fall to the ground. Regina reached down to get it, but Emma was faster.

"What is this?" Emma asked, softly.

"You give that back to me," Regina said, seething.

"Is this from your lost love? The partner you said you were planning to spend the rest of your life with?" Emma asked, returning the ring to its rightful owner.

"You had no right!" Regina shouted. She stepped into Emma's space, nearly shaking with the force of barely suppressed anger. "Why do you keep trying to take everything from me, Miss Swan?"

"Regina…" Emma said softly. She'd no more forced her hand than she had trapped her in conversation. She was beginning to see that the Mayor's problem wasn't with feeling too little.

Regina turned on her heel and stormed out of the office. This time, Emma made no move to stop her.

With a soft thud, this is how her world ends.

Emma sees Henry lying on the ground, baked apple turnover in his hand and she screams his name.

She calls the ambulance, no, screams at them to come _save her son_.

Everything is a blur as she rides to the hospital. Dr. Whale doesn't know what happened, but she does. The turnover wasn't poison, just as it wasn't a poisoned apple that put Snow White in a slumber. It was a curse.

Regina enters the ICU. Then is swiftly thrown against the shelf in the storage closet. Emma sees red. She doesn't care whether she's hurting her son's mother, she only cares about getting answers.

"You did this!"

Emma has a fist full of Regina's lapel, pushing her up against the cabinet. She pins the mayor's hand in a mockery of a handhold.

"It was meant for you"

All the pretenses fall away. Brown eyes have never looked so defeated, so honest.

"It's true, isn't it?"

A small nod. A single tear falls to lead the masses that will soon follow when the adrenaline wears off. Regina's head falls back against the cabinet, the fight leaving her body.

"I was leaving town! Why couldn't you just leave it alone?"

"You were getting too close. And as long as you're alive, Henry will never be my son."

Neither woman knows what to do. There is no solution, just unspeakable grief at the uncertain future of their son.

Together, Regina and Emma seek help from the one man who knows how to help them, who orchestrated the curse and its failsafe.

Together, Regina and Emma are left in the library after risking life, limb or pride to get the True Love potion from the belly of the beast below the library, only for Rumpelstiltskin to double-cross them and leave them with nothing.

Emma looks at Regina.

"What do we do now?" Emma asks desperately. She sways slightly, the exertion of staying up for nearly 24hrs and killing a motherfucking dragon suddenly catches up to her.

"I don't know." Regina says, defeated. "I don't know and I can't think. You look like you're about to pass out. We're no use to Henry in this state, and last we heard he was stable. I think we try to get a couple hours of rest and…"

"Rest? How can you even think of resting at a time like this?" Emma shouts. "We don't know how long he has!"

"We don't have anything else we can do." Regina answers. "Come on, Miss Swan. I'll drop you off at your apartment."

"My apartment…" Emma says, slightly dazed. "With Mary Mar—Snow White. My mother."

"Yes, I suppose." Regina mutters.

"Regina, I can't go back there tonight." Emma says, placing a hand on Regina's arm, eyes pleading.

"Alright, Miss Swan. Come, let's go." Regina says.

Regina cuts the ignition of her Mercedes. The ride over was silent. There's nothing to say between them.

Regina feels like she's walking on numb feet, not feeling the ground beneath her. She helps Emma out of the car, noticing that Emma had fallen asleep on the way. One arm around the waist of the woman she'd tried to curse not 24 hours ago, she walks up to 108 Mifflin St.

All the hatred, all the unrelenting sadness, all of it dissipates into nothing. She feels nothing as she leads the way up the stairs. She's vaguely aware of tears falling down her cheeks but she makes no move to wipe them away.

"The guest room is down the hall," Regina says, turning to face Emma. The reluctant saviour appears to be renewed with alert, shining eyes; the remnants of sleep left behind in the driveway. Regina no sooner can finish her thought than she finds her back pressed up against the wall, pinned by the saviour for the second time today.

"Emma…" Regina breathes before her lips are captured in an urgent kiss. She brings her hands to caress Emma's neck briefly, returning the kiss, before moving them to push at her shoulders. "Emma, you know who I am…"

"I don't want to think about evil queens, or curses right now. I don't want to think of long lost parents or destiny or whether our son will make it through the night." Emma says, kissing her cheek, her jaw, her neck and leaving a trail of tears in her wake.

"Our son…" Regina whispers as her head tilts back against the wall and eyes flutter shut.

"I don't want to think about any of it." Emma says, capturing her lips in another kiss. "Regina, make me forget. Just for a while."

Regina caresses Emma's cheek, stares into eyes that now see. She knows, come morning, Emma will hate her with renewed passion. She knows her carefully enacted curse may disintegrate around her. She knows the saviour will be the end of her.

She initiates the next kiss, anyway. She leads the saviour to her bed, hoping to reach an emptiness without numbness. She hopes to overload her senses, as if they could be reset. She hopes for some relief from feelings she's not felt so completely since she enacted the curse.

It isn't tender. It's desperate. Lips become bruised from harsh kisses. Fingernails claw down bare backs. Hair is pulled and eye contact is avoided. Their skin shines with a sheen of sweat and mixed tears. This is not a moment of affection. Sharp pains distract from the hollow hearts that ache with grief. The is no comfort to be sought here.

Emma's eyes fly open. She hears her phone going off.

 _Henry_.

She jumps out of the now familiar bed and answers the call.

 _Henry._

"What is it, is Henry alright?" Regina asks, completely alert despite getting only two hours rest.

"We have to go." Emma says.

They are out the door in one minute.

They are at the hospital in five.

They are too late.

Together, they approach the ICU, where the nurses are turning off the equipment that makes their son look so small. So much smaller than any ten year old should. Regina turns into Emma, arms grasping the collar of her shirt and Emma feels her arms wrap around the woman as her right shoulder gets wet. She only allows herself a moment before she gently passes Regina to a nearby doctor and continues walking up to Henry.

"Henry, I love you."

Tears blind her vision as she leans down to place a gentle kiss on his forehead. She doesn't see True Love's pulse travel across the room, she feels it.

"I love you too."

Never has there been a sweeter sound. Emma looks at Henry in awe. Regina is frozen across the room, her eyes mirroring Emma's. This was more than either had dared hope for.

The realization that more than one curse was broken is a slow one.

Regina urges Henry to remember that she loves him, tries to convince him of her sincerity. Emma can see the longing in his gaze, the small boy who just wants the love and approval of his mother.

Regina turns and leaves.

Emma and Henry watch her go.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Emma walked through pink fog down the main street, watching in awe at the small ten year old boy—her son—who was holding her hand and practically skipping down the sidewalk, no worse for wear for having been dead not ten minutes ago. Henry's heart had stopped. Modern medicine couldn't resuscitate him. And yet, here he was: all smiles and _we should get ice cream with grandma and gramps._

Grandma and Gramps. Snow White and Prince Charming.

Emma swallowed and it felt like sand trickling down her throat. That was going to take some getting used to. Henry had been spouting tall tales of her parentage for months, but to learn it was true… well Emma hadn't quite wrapped her mind around that yet.

"Emma!"

Before Emma could blink, she was wrapped up in a hug by a woman as pale as her name. She looked as if she might faint, as if it were all too much and her boa constrictor hold on her daughter was all that were keeping her upright. Did women overcome by excess emotion faint in the Enchanted Forest? Or was that just Victorian-era Europeans? Her father joined the embrace and Emma filed the thought away for later.

"You found us." Snow whispered with teary breath, clearly more comfortable with her emotions than her daughter. It appeared the tagline was a family motto, not solely reserved for the True Lovers.

"We can be a family now." David added, his own eyes turning misty.

"I…" Emma started. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know how to do this… this family thing. Thankfully, the moment was broken by the arrival of long-lost friends of her parents. More hugs and tears were exchanged. The reunions quickly resolved the joy of recognition and they were left with the fury that simmered beneath it.

Questions started surfacing, echoing between the gathered fairy tale folk without any answers to meet them.

"The curse is broken? How?"

"What was that pink smoke?"

"Why are we still in Storybrooke?"

"Where is my son/mother/daughter/father?"

One voice rose above the rest.

"The Evil Queen," David said. "We can't let her get away with this."

The small crowd that had formed murmured their agreement, an energy building among them.

"Emma, my mom!" Henry whispered, pulling on her sleeve with wide, fear-filled eyes. Emma knelt down next to him and took both his hands in hers.

"Henry, I will not let anything happen to her." Emma said. He gave a small nod and looked at the ground. He pulled his hand back to wipe away an escaped tear.

"We are not going to charge the Evil Queen like a medieval mob." Emma said with the authority of Sheriff. What would become of the civil servant positions of this town was anyone's guess, but until the townsfolk figured their shit out, Emma was going to serve and protect. "You are going to go to the town hall and make sure no one is panicking. You'll have to figure out a way forward, but first you need to focus on reuniting lost loved ones and preventing a militia attack. Whatever you decide, we are still in Storybrooke, Maine. And we don't execute people for their crimes here."

Emma turned to Henry.

"Henry, I want you to stay with your… grandparents." Emma said, the word feeling sticky on its way out. "I'll be back soon."

"Emma, where are you going?" Snow asked, surprised.

"To get some goddamned answers." Emma said. Internally, she heard a regal _Language, Miss Swan_.

Regina was in her office. Not the one in her home, the mayoral office she'd been elected into. Even if the election hadn't been in good faith. There may be a crises in the town, the brink of an upheaval in the town politics, but she was still the Mayor and there were deadlines to be met. Besides, she was pretty sure this was the last place an angry mob would look for her.

Regina had known the moment the curse broke. She felt all her emotions, the fear, the sadness, the hope, amplify exponentially. As if they'd been sleep walking for the better part of three decades and had now decided to wake up. It was disorienting, exhausting. How did people live like this?

A long-forgotten memory itched at the back of her mind. A conversation with an old friend. A warning. The cost of a curse: a void that she'd never be able to fill.

She didn't feel better, per se. But she certainly felt more. It was distracting.

Regina tried to return her focus to the paperwork before her. Suddenly, there was a stirring of the air around her. Subtle, but familiar.

"Rumpelstiltskin." Regina greeted coldly, her eyes flicking up. She saw no one in front of her. Cool pressure hit her throat. Cool, sharp pressure. She glanced down. A knife. Well, after all the years she'd lived and after all her crimes, what a boring way to go. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"You will pay for what you've done." Rumpelstiltskin whispered in her ear from behind her chair.

"What could you possibly be mad about? The curse is broken, just like you orchestrated." Regina spat out.

"Belle."

Regina paled.

"You kept her locked up for thirty years. You told me she was dead." He seethed.

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about." Regina bluffed. The blade pressed firmly into her throat.

"Do not. Lie. To. Me." Rumpelstiltskin threatened.

"So you're going to slit my throat, are you, Rumpel? How… pedestrian. My, how the mighty have fallen." Regina taunted, knowing full well she held no power here.

"No, dearie. I have much worse a fate in mind for you." He replied. Belts appeared out of nowhere strapping her arms to her chair. Regina struggled against the binds, trying to blow them apart with her magic. But the only effect was some bruising on her forearms. Her eyes widened. Magic was brought back; the force that she was attempting to conjure should have been more than a match for the simple restraints. Rumpelstiltskin let out a chuckle, his warm breath bringing the hairs on the back of her neck to attention. "Magic works differently here, dearie. But not to worry…"

Rumpelstiltskin drew the knife away from her neck, leaving a shallow cut as evidence of their encounter. He grabbed her right hand, forcing the palm upward and against a dull medallion. Regina tried pulling away but had nowhere to go.

"Some things don't change."

The sound of a door opening caused Regina's gaze to shoot up. Emma Swan was standing across the room, hesitating only a moment to take in the sight of the Mayor restrained and the Pawn Shop Owner/Contract Lawyer/Landlord behind her, before charging forward. By the time she made it to the desk, Rumpelstiltskin had vanished.

Emma skittered around the desk, and started to fiddle with the restraints around her arms before she noticed the thin trail of blood making its way toward the mayor's white collar. She quickly removed her gaudy red leather jacket and pulled her sweater over her hand. Regina winced as Emma's clothed hand made contact with her neck, both from the sting of physical pain and from an exaggerated drop of her stomach. No, not exaggerated. Restored? Regina mentally shook herself.

"Are you okay?" Emma asked, concern written plainly across her face.

"I'm fine. Just, get these belts off of me." Regina said, avoiding eye contact. She did not like to be tied down. Even now, it brought her back to the consequences of misbehaving in her mother's household.

As soon as her arms were released, she pulled her right hand tight against herself and rose from her chair. She walked over to the buffet next to the couch, where she kept her harder beverages. She lifted the whisky bottle to pour herself a glass.

"I have some questions. And you're going to answer them." Emma said from behind Regina, still standing next to the desk.

Regina paused.

"Am I, dear?" Regina asked coolly. She put down the bottle of alcohol, thinking better of her choice. Instead, she poured some water, not offering any to her guest.

Emma sat down on the couch and waited for Regina to follow suit. She took the chair.

"What was that purple smoke? What did you do?" Emma asked. She seemed calm on the exterior, but Regina could see more depth to it swirling inside.

"I didn't do anything. The smoke you saw was Rumpelstiltskin bringing magic to this world." Regina said plainly.

"Magic. How?" Emma asked.

"I imagine that was why he needed you to retrieve his bottled True Love." Regina said slowly, as if she were a child not understanding a basic mathematic principle.

"Motherfucker." Emma breathed, clearly annoyed at her tone but preoccupied with the more pressing matter at hand.

"Language, Miss Swan." Regina chastised. Emma just glared at her.

"Why would he bring magic here? Why not just bring us back to the Enchanted Forest? And why didn't breaking the curse do that? Why are we still in Storybrook?" Emma said, rapid fire.

"You weren't kidding about the questions. Maybe I should have opted for the whisky…" Regina muttered. She took a sip of her water in response to Emma's impatient stare. "The answer is simple. We are still here, because Rumpelstiltskin wants us here."

"For what?" Emma probed.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Regina answered.

"I don't understand." Emma said, her brow furrowed.

"I wouldn't expect you to." Regina said.

"I thought it was your curse, don't you control how it breaks?" Emma asked.

"I simply cast the curse, dear." Regina sighed. "It was not my design. Rumpelstiltskin made the curse to bring us here. He wrote in the failsafe to break the curse, a Saviour—product of True Love—to come save us all after 28 years."

"But that doesn't explain why we are still here." Emma said.

"Deductive reasoning isn't exactly your strong suit, Saviour?" Regina taunted.

"Knock it off, Regina. Just tell it to me straight." Emma said, quickly losing patience.

"Rumpelstiltskin wanted to be in a world without magic, so he designed a curse and orchestrated how to partially break it and found a way to bring his powers here." Regina articulated.

"Partially break it. What do you mean, partially?" Emma asked.

"The first step was to get the Saviour to believe. The second, well, Rumpel made damned sure the second step was an impossibility." Regina said, cryptically.

"What is the second step, Regina?" Emma asked, a warning note in her tone.

"The same step that will break every curse. True Love's kiss." Regina said, her face carefully placed into a neutral mask.

"But I did that. I kissed Henry and broke the curse." Emma countered.

"A curse. You broke _a_ curse with True Love's kiss." Regina said. "This curse was written to be broken by a True Love kiss between a very specific pairing, one Rumpel knew would never come to fruition. I've spent enough years as his pawn to know that if he's written it to be unattainable, it will be. I'm afraid, Saviour, that breaking the curse fully is not the way to bring your precious family back home."

Emma drew her hands through her blonde waves. She let out a deep sigh.

"Great. Just great." Emma said, getting up from the couch. "The people are panicking, there's no way for them to get back to the Enchanted Forest, and there's a long queue of people who think it's high time you got a taste of your own medicine."

"Why are you concerned?" Regina asked. "I wouldn't have thought you'd be on the first train to the Enchanted Forest. And as for the blood thirst, well, let that run its course and you'll get what you want: Henry all to yourself."

"I'm not letting you die at the hands of angry dwarves and princesses, Regina. Our son asked be to protect you and that's not a promise I intend on breaking." Emma said.

"Our son." Regina breathed. The woman before her kept surprising her. Though, she wasn't raised in a realm where kingdoms ran on vengeance and honour. Regina looked down at her right palm and cleared her throat. "Well, it may not be the angry townsfolk you have to worry about, Sheriff."

Emma was at her side in a flash, taking her hand in her own and studying it. Regina closed her eyes at the sudden tingling that took over her skin, like currents of raw electricity rampaging beneath the surface. The mark was beginning to emerge.

"What is that?" Emma asked. The woman was quite out of her depth, Regina observed.

"The mark of a wraith. A soul-sucker. Rumpel marked me. I'm sure I have less than 24 hours to live. Well, to live any life worth living." Regina said without emotion.

"Well, madam Mayor, it looks like I'm going to have to put you in protective custody." Emma said.

"Protective custody?" Regina scoff. "Pray tell, Sheriff, whom are we protecting?"

Emma snapped her phone shut and shoved it into her pocket. She'd just debriefed her father on what she'd learned from her conversation with Regina. He hadn't been happy with her decision of protective custody. She expected she'd be hearing more about that later. If there was still a mayor to protect, that is.

"I'd like to see Henry." Regina said, tentatively. Emma turned to face the woman she had refused to let leave her sight. "If I'm going to die tonight, I'd like to see him before I go."

"I don't think that's best." Emma said. The mayor reared up at her response, head held high and looking every bit the Evil Queen.

"He's my son." Regina spat.

"I am not going to allow you to put _our_ son in danger." Emma countered, not backing down. "Whatever this wraith is that coming for you, Henry is not going to be caught in the cross fires."

Regina's shoulders slumped, the wind beneath her settling into a soft breeze.

"I… yes, Henry's safety is paramount." Regina acquiesced.

"Why don't you call him?" Emma offered, her voice softer. She pulled out her phone and dialed David back. "Hey David, can you put Henry on the phone? …Hey kid, your mom wants to talk to you."

Emma handed over her phone and Regina quickly grabbed it. She turned away and walked to the other side of the room. Emma let her have some semblance of privacy for what may very well be the last conversation they had together.

"No, dear. Everything's fine."

Emma hoped that was true. She could handle a fugitive, or anyone trying to give her a hard time, but a mystical undead soul-sucking ghost? She had no idea how they were going to save Regina from this.

A shudder rolled through the town. The air cooled by several degrees. Emma's a stranger to magic but even she could tell that this isn't good.

Regina's eyes locked with Emma's from across the room. Emma can recognize the terror buried in her gaze. It's time.

"I love you, Henry."

Snow and David showed up to help, leaving Henry in the care of Ruby and Granny while they fight to save his mother from a fate worse than death. Emma glances around the town hall, Snow and David wielding DIY torches and Regina fiddling with a hat that looks better suited to an elaborate costume party.

The wraith circles overhead, looking every bit the fearsome dementor that haunted Emma's dreams once she learned to read.

They are running out of time. This had better work. Emma crouches down, places a hang on Regina's arm and feels… something. The portal opens up and Emma's entire focus is drawn to _this may actually work._

Regina feels a hand on her arm and it's light, and it's foreign, and powerful. It sends waves through her system and jump starts her magic. The portal opens and Regina stares in shock at the woman beside her.

The wraith comes at her, but she doesn't see it coming. Just sees the blonde tackling her to the ground, out of reach. And then she's moving away, no, being dragged away and Regina does the only thing she can think of. She holds on.

The wraith is strong, but the connection formed between her hand and Emma's gives her the strength to send a powerful blast of magic into the hat. The wraith goes through the portal, the hat is destroyed.

Regina feels intense relief. She glances up at Snow and David, seeing profound disappointment—they had been hoping they could use the hat to go home. Regina drops Emma's hand as if it's burned her.

"We need to lock her up!" Snow shouts.

"We agreed on protective custody," Emma protests.

"She just destroyed our way home, Emma! She's clearly not done with her vendetta!" Snow counters, growing near-hysterical.

Regina feels her magic coursing down her arms. She shoots tree branches out from the wall, wrapping around both Snow and David.

"Regina, no!" Emma yells. Regina sends a blast that throws her to the other side of the room.

"That hat was not your ticket home. It was meant to travel between realms, a two-way ticket. You could go somewhere else but you'd always have to return from whence you came. I just saved your daughter, the one _you_ abandoned, from god knows what. Limbo? Death? And you have the _audacity_ to accuse me of plotting against you? This is how it's always going to be, isn't it?" Regina shouts, her intensity building with every word.

"Mom?"

Regina stops abruptly. She turns around to see Henry, his eyes filled with such betrayal. Her ears ring with _I don't want to see you_ ; her heart breaks, falls from her chest and shatters.

Regina stared blankly at her open fridge. It was quickly losing it's cool. She'd been trying to think of what to make for dinner but her mind kept jumping back to teary eyes and _prove it._

She closed the fridge doors with a sigh. It wasn't as if she were hungry anyway. She couldn't possibly eat with her stomach entwined in elaborate knots. There was nothing left for her to do but wait for the Sheriff to come take her into protective custody, whatever that meant. The Sheriff had had about a week's worth of on-the-job training, for god sake. The fact that the town hadn't devolved into chaos under her watch was a miracle.

She grabbed a book and sat in the living room with every intention of reading it, but ended up staring out the window toward her driveway.

Eventually, a knock jolted Regina from her reverie. She walked over to the front door and opened the door for the Sheriff without a greeting.

"Ready to go, Regina?" Emma asked, her eyes full of pity.

"Where are we going, Miss Swan?" Regina asked without patience. Regardless, she grabbed her coat and the overnight bag Emma had told her to pack.

"That information's classified. Need to know," Emma shrugged, the pity replaced with a teasing glint. Regina just rolled her eyes.

"Wherever we're going, it had better not be far. I would like to get there before tomorrow." Regina said. She began walking past Emma toward her Mercedes.

"Ah ah ah, nope," Emma said, jogging to catch up. "We're taking my car."

"I am not willingly riding in that deathtrap you call a vehicle." Regina said with disdain, stopping in her tracks.

"Didn't say we were taking the bug," Emma said. She walked past Regina's car toward an unfamiliar black sedan. "Got a special one for the occasion. Less recognizable."

Regina had to admit this one didn't look like it should have been left to rest in peace in an impound lot ten years ago.

"Very well." Regina said. She opened the passenger door and sat with her bag on her lap. Emma quickly followed, sitting in the driver's seat and starting the ignition.

They made it a few minutes in silence before the Sheriff's inability to let sleeping dogs lie reared its ugly head.

"Regina, about Henry…" Emma started.

"Don't, Miss Swan." Regina cut her off sharply. She turned to face out her side window.

"I told him how you saved my life before he got there." Emma said.

"You had no right to meddle—" Regina started.

"No," Emma said, this time the one to interrupt. "He should know that you aren't one sided. That you're trying. I don't know if he really gets that not everything is black and white, but he'll get there."

Regina said nothing, just stared out at the passing streetlights.

"I know he's upset now, but he'll come around with time," Emma said. "You're still his mom. We both are. And he needs both of us."

Regina felt tears begin to well in her eyes, uninvited. She refused to let them fall. These feelings were harder to get control over than the ones she'd been living with during the curse.

They spent the rest of the drive in silence. They left behind the street lights of the main town center and drove down winding gravel paths. When they arrived at their destination, Regina couldn't say with complete certainty that she knew where they were.

Emma cut the engine and lead the way up to a small cabin on the top of a hill. Regina got out of the car and just stared for a moment. Emma stopped on the porch for a moment, fiddling with the keys, before she unlocked the door and went inside, leaving the door open.

Lights went on inside, illuminating large front windows into what appeared to be a cozy living space. Regina quickly made her way up and entered her temporary prison.

"Where are we?" Regina asked, looking around at the open-concept space. There were some mismatched armchairs next to a fireplace and a well-loved couch facing the television on the mantle. Patterned throw pillows and blankets littered every surface.

The kitchen was small, but functional. With wooden counter tops and simple cabinets. There wasn't the luxury of a dishwasher that she'd grown used to but it wasn't unclean. A long table that suggested intent to host dinner parties was near the back wall, where windows looked out onto a porch and a view of a lake.

"This, is the safe house," Emma said.

"This is not in the Sheriff's department budget." Regina said, placing her bag down next to the coffee table and admiring the intricate, rustic chandelier that was centered over the dining table.

"Didn't say it was." Emma shrugged. "Over here's the bedrooms and bathroom. Linen closet."

Emma lead the way to a corridor off the main living area, flicking on lights and opening doors. There were three bedrooms, two facing the front of the cabin and one facing the back. It wasn't in Regina's décor tastes, but it had charm. If she were to be imprisoned, this was not the worst place to serve her time.

"Whose place is this, Emma?" Regina asked.

"That's need to know. Rest assured, there's no trail leading to you here." Emma said. "Now, make yourself at home. I'm going to start my watch. And close the blinds."

It turns out Emma's supposed "watch" entailed her sitting out on the porch and shivering to scare off any bloodthirsty townsfolk. Regina rolled her eyes. She let the Sheriff sit out there for 15 minutes before she figured the woman's stubbornness would give her hypothermia.

"Miss Swan, what good a guard are you if your trigger finger is frozen?" Regina asked, leaning against the front door.

"I'm fine," Emma muttered, wrapping her arms tighter to her body for warmth.

"I'm not going to be the reason the Saviour dies of hypothermia. I don't want that added to my list of crimes." Regina said. "Come inside, you can do your watch from there."

Regina held the door open and waiting for Emma to follow, after a brief hesitation. She turned her back to the blonde, walked over to the fireplace and started making a fire.

"I must say, I was expecting to spend the rest of my days in a four by ten cell. I didn't foresee a getaway to a cabin in the woods." Regina said.

"I can still take you there," Emma warned. She stood near the corner of the room, beside the couch, staring out the front window.

"I'm merely observing that the punishment does not fit the crime." Regina said. She shifted the logs to allow more oxygen to reach the small flame and took a step back to observe her handiwork.

"They don't exactly have 'casting a dark curse to take away everyone's happy ending' written into the criminal code." Emma grumbled.

"But surely they have extortion, treason, murder…" Regina trailed off, moving to stand next to Emma and stare into the dark forest that surrounded them.

"Fuck, Regina." Emma said. She ran her fingers through her blonde locks in exasperation. "I can't even think of all that right now."

"I'm not proud of what I did. But everything I did, every crime I committed, it all brought me here, to Henry. And I can't regret that." Regina said softly. "He's the best thing in my life."

"Well," Emma sighed. "There's this thing here called jurisdiction and all the crap you did… back where you all are from… that falls way outside mine."

"You can't just bury your head in the sand and act like you don't know any better." Regina chastised. "Like it or not, you're more than the Sheriff of this town, you're the Saviour. People are going to look to you when making this decision, and you're going to have to have an answer for them."

"I never asked for this." Emma said, slightly distressed.

"Don't you get it? Our choices are not our own, Emma. We're all just victims of our circumstances." Regina shrugged, visibly impatient.

Emma lunged forward, grabbing Regina by the throat and pushing her back against the wall. Fire ignited in Regina's eyes but she made no move to overpower the blonde.

"Because of you, I was abandoned on the side of the highway. Because of you, I was bounced around from foster home to foster home. Neglected, abused, unwanted, unloved. Because of you, I didn't get to raise my son." Emma said, her voice barely above a whisper, shaking with fury. "So don't give me that fate bullshit. My circumstance was your choice."

"Sounds like you've put your hate in the right person," Regina replied. Her gaze was unwavering, defiant, and guarded.

"Hate you? I don't…I—" Emma muttered. Her grasp on Regina's neck loosed into a caress. Emma stepped ever so slightly closer, pressing her body against the length of Regina's, laying her forehead against the wall beside Regina's ear.

"Feeling conflicted, dear?" Regina taunted. Emma turned her head toward the queen, her nose nuzzling the side of Regina's neck.

"You can't pretend like you don't feel this too." Emma asked.

"You've read my story, if you think that sex is anything more than a manipulation, an obligation, you're more naïve than I thought." Regina said, voice flat. Emma pulled back to lock eyes with Regina.

"The book actually didn't talk much about your story, except for how it related to hunting Snow White…" Emma said, her eyes inquisitive.

"The missing pages… I thought…" Regina stuttered. Her eyes cast downward. She hadn't meant to introduce this topic.

"Those were about me." Emma said, almost guiltily.

"Of course they were," Regina said, fire burning anew. "Well, suffice it to say that in the Enchanted Forest, men took what they believed they were entitled to, regardless of the terror of their newly wedded wives. And a widely-respected King would not tolerate a disobedient, young queen."

"Yeah there are plenty of men of that mindset here too." Emma said, putting words to a shared experience. She stepped away from the woman she'd pinned against the wall. She held their gaze for a moment as she took small steps backward, before turning away and grabbing her leather jacket. Regina stayed leaning against the wall, her skin tingling where Emma had touched it, not daring to move. The sheriff was gone in a flash of red, reclaiming her seat on the porch out front for the night.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Emma woke up to the smell of coffee. She opened her bleary eyes, blinking a few times as an unfamiliar blanket tucked beneath her chin shifted into focus. As Emma remembered where she'd fallen asleep last night, she saw a steaming mug on the small table to her left.

"Thanks for the coffee," Emma said. She shot a smile over her shoulder to where Regina was sitting on the matching chair, staring out into the forest.

"Well, I didn't want to deal with a decaffeinated watch dog this morning." Regina muttered, taking a sip of her own coffee to hide her smirk. Though ultimately unsuccessful, Emma chuckled at the attempt.

"Sleep well?" Emma asked.

"I suppose it wasn't the worst night's sleep I've had. You can hear the crickets out here. Obnoxious creatures..." The brunette trailed off. Regina absentmindedly brought her hand up to her collarbone, startling when her finger made contact with her skin.

"The ring." Emma started. Regina glanced up, instantly guarded. "You sometimes wear it around your neck, on a chain."

"Yes, I suppose I did." Regina said, looking back out at the trees.

"It was from, y'know, the one that got away?" Emma asked.

"The one that…? Oh, you mean—" Regina snorted, but there was no humour in her eyes. "'Got away' is an inaccurate descriptor, dear. Daniel was forcibly taken from me."

Emma blinked at Regina, waiting for her to continue. Regina rolled her eyes and gave an exasperated sigh.

"I met Daniel when I was 16. He came to work at my parent's estate as a stable boy. He had a love for horses and showed me the joys of riding. Before him it was a chore, another skill to be learned as a noble lady. But Daniel taught me respect for the horse. He showed me how riding is a connection between rider and steed. He was kind and honorable. We used to ride to the apple tree at the edge of the property and dream of starting a new life free of my mother's reach." Regina recounted, her eyes unfocused. "But then my mother betrothed me to the King. I had picked up the ring at the market using coin meant for a new hat. I gave it to Daniel that night, begged him to run away with me…"

Regina's breathing hitched. She took a shaky breath in and continued.

"Snow White saw us kiss at the stables. I told her it must be kept a secret, but she told my mother. My mother is not a forgiving woman. She killed him right in front of me, when we were to make our escape. The ring was all I had left of him."

"Had?" Emma asked timidly, waiting for the other shoe to drop. It wasn't like Regina to be so open about her past. Not willingly, not without ulterior motives.

"It was the only magic in Storybrooke, before Gold brought magic here. I needed magic to open the portal to retrieve the poisoned apple. Daniel's ring in exchange for getting my son back from your grasp. I thought it was worth it, at the time." Regina admitted.

"Why are you telling me all this? You aren't exactly the sharing type." Emma asked.

"You've already taken everything from me, Miss Swan. You've won. What's a few more secrets when you already have everything else that matters?" Regina answered with soft, sad, brown eyes.

"Regina, I—" Emma started, unsure of what she meant to say.

"Save it, Miss Swan." Regina said. "I don't need your pity."

The former mayor got up from the chair and started toward the door.

"Regina, wait." Emma said. Regina paused as she opened the door. "I'm going to head into town, see what state Mary Margret and David have reached with the fairy tale creatures. Ruby is on her way to take the next watch. You'll be okay."

"This place really is beautiful." Regina said. "Wouldn't be a bad place to serve my sentence."

"I'll keep that in mind," Emma said. Regina continued inside and Emma gulped down the rest of her coffee. Time to put out some fires.

Emma stared out at the town hall. Voices raised to speak over each other until the sound was near-deafening. Dr. Hopper had been trying in vain to get the attention of the room for the past ten minutes.

"Hey, everybody! Shut up!" Emma yelled, her voice reverberating off the walls as people stopped mid-sentence to listen to the saviour.

"Thanks Emma." Dr. Hopper said. "We're here today to talk about our future. How we're going to move past this collective trauma and reform our community. On the agenda: reuniting separated families, whether we want to call Storybrook home or try to find a way back to the Enchanted Forest, organizing a trial for Regina, and what to do about the threat of Rumpelstiltskin. We'll start with reuniting lost loved ones. Granny, I'll give you the floor."

After the town hall devolved into shouting obscenities across the room, Emma made a bee line to the exit.

"Emma! Emma wait up!" Snow called. Emma was already about ten paces ahead, but she slowed to a stop and waited. "Come, let's go home and have dinner as a family."

Emma was about to say no, make up some bullshit excuse to get the hell out of there, when she say the excitement on Henry's face. Instead, she found herself agreeing to meet the Charmings back at the loft.

They sat around the table, eating take-out from Granny's in silence. Snow kept eyeing Emma and opening her mouth as if to say something, seemingly thinking better of it, and closing her mouth once more. David clearly didn't know what he should be saying to his newly-found adult daughter and opted to avoid conversation by stuffing his mouth full of food, forkful after forkful. It was a wonder he was still able to find the time to breathe.

"So, Henry…" Snow started, seemingly finding enough courage to broach conversation with the easier, younger target. "How's school?"

"Uh, you'd know best, I guess." Henry said slowly. "I mean, you're my teacher."

"I suppose you're right." Snow said, forcing a small chuckle.

"Are even going to keep having school?" Henry asked. "Or do I get to learn sword fighting and horseback riding instead?" Henry looked increasingly excited as he listed off potential activities. The prospect of no more school was every ten year old kid's dream.

"Of course you're going to keep having school." Emma said, just as Snow answered with:

"Well, I certainly think our first priority is getting back to the Enchanted Forest."

The two women blinked at each other.

"You aren't pulling my son out of school." Emma warned.

"Of course that's not the ideal, but Emma, we aren't going to have any teachers. It's going to be all hands on deck to find our way home." Snow countered.

"It's not my home." Emma said.

"Where is your home?" Snow asked, curious. "I mean, where did you grow up?"

"I'm not really from anywhere…" Emma said, her arms crossing in front of her.

"I know you moved around as a child…" Snow started.

"That's an understatement." Emma snorted.

"But surely you settled down somewhere?" Snow asked.

"I already told you this, before. Back when we were roommates." Emma said.

"That was different. Now I know I'm your mother and you know you're my daughter." Snow said, brow furrowed. "That changes things."

"Why is this so important to you?" Emma asked, raising her voice slightly.

"I just want to get to know you, Emma. We lost so much time." Snow pleaded.

Emma got up from the table and dropped her napkin on her plate. She grabbed her coat and her keys and walked toward the door.

"What did I say?" Snow said with wide, confused eyes. Emma just opened the front door and kept walking.

Emma slammed the door to the nondescript sedan and stormed up to the cabin.

"I'll take it from here Rubes." Emma said gruffly. Ruby raised her eyebrow but didn't comment. She gathered the book she'd been reading on the porch. "Any trouble?"

"Nothing," Ruby said. "No one around the perimeter, as far as my wolf-senses could gather. And they are quite capable of gathering."

"Fair enough. Thanks Ruby. I know it's not an easy thing to ask of you, to protect the woman who…" Emma trailed off.

"We've all done terrible things we regret. The degrees of terribleness and remorse vary. But if she's serious about reforming her ways, becoming better for Henry, well now's a good a time as any. I'm not going to take away someone's second chance." Ruby shrugged.

"Thank you." Emma said, placing a hand on Ruby's arm. "Take care."

"I always do." Ruby winked. Then she turned and walked down the driveway, picking up into a run. Emma took a deep breath and entered the cabin.

"So, what's the verdict?" Regina asked loftily from where she sat on the couch in front of the fireplace, book in one hand and a glass of red in the other. "Have they demanded my head? Or perhaps my heart?"

"Ha ha," Emma said without humour. She went to the kitchen to pour herself a generous glass of wine.

"That bad, huh?" Regina said. Emma sunk down on the other side of the couch with a sigh.

"No, the town meeting was fine. Well, as fine as you could expect. Quelled some of the anger. Managed to convince the masses that we would not be executing you in the town square. They didn't like that, many people are demanding retribution. But for now, we managed to shift the focus to facilitating finding loved ones and reuniting families that were separated. There was an overwhelming movement to try to find a way back to the Enchanted Forest—headed up by dear old mom and dad. Though it was far from unanimous." Emma recounted.

"Life in the Enchanted Forest wasn't exactly a breeze," Regina noted. "Especially not for those who were not of nobility. Plus, you can't really beat central air and indoor plumbing."

"God, I hadn't even thought of that." Emma mumbled. "I can't imagine leaving this world. This is where I grew up, where Henry grew up…"

"It would be quite the culture shock, indeed." Regina agreed.

"Would you go back?" Emma asked. "If you had the choice?"

"Back to a world where I am hated by all, and my enemy has taken my son from me?" Regina answered. "I'd imagine they'd exile me, or worse. Spending your days alone, even in a castle, can get quite boring. But I'd go wherever Henry is; I'm not going to stop fighting to see him."

"Yeah, I suppose I'd give up cable for the kid." Emma said.

"Mmm." Regina hummed in agreement. "I wasn't expecting you to be back so soon."

"Yeah, technically I wasn't on this shift." Emma shrugged. "But I needed a change of scenery."

"So you chose to spend your evening with the Evil Queen over your long-lost parents?" Regina challenged.

"Everything is different with them now. At least here…" Emma trailed off.

Regina raised her eyebrow.

"You're still just a broken woman who doesn't know how to love very well. That much is the same. You're not my roommate, friend, and confidant, turned mother," Emma spat out.

"I have never been _just_ anything, and you'll do well to remember that. Besides, I suppose I'm actually your step-grandmother, if you want to get technical about your family history." Regina replied, taking a sip of her wine with a small shrug.

Emma choked on her drink.

"Never say that again," Emma said, staring wide-eyed at Regina after she caught her breath. Regina responded with a wicked smirk. "How old are you, anyway?"

"Including the years in which time stood still?" Regina asked. "I don't think you really want to know, dear."

"Tell me," Emma whispered.

"I guess, technically speaking, I'm 65? 66 maybe?" Regina said.

"You're not much older than my—than Snow White," Emma gasped.

"Don't act so shocked, Miss Swan. I'm sure you're not so naïve as to think I wasn't married off before I would be able to vote in this realm." Regina took another sip of her drink.

"How old were you when you married the King?" Emma breathed. She shifted closer to Regina on the couch.

"Seventeen." Regina said, avoiding her inquisitive and pitying gaze.

"How old was he?" Emma probed further.

"Well over fifty, dear." Regina said, her eyes now cast down.

"Fuck." Emma said, slumping back against the couch.

"Don't think on it too much, I try not to." Regina muttered.

"I…" Emma started.

"Why are you here, Miss Swan? Certainly not to get an account of your heritage." Regina said with exasperation.

"I needed to get away." Emma said.

"Ah, yes. Well, Snow's love can feel very suffocating indeed." Regina said.

"Do you remember what it felt like to be cared for?" Emma asked, sipping her drink.

"Yes." Regina breathed. "I remember it every day. And I remember why I no longer have it."

"I don't. Never have." Emma said.

"That's not true." Regina challenged. Emma raised a challenging brow. "Henry's father meant something to you."

"Henry's father left me to take the fall for him and serve a prison sentence that should have been his. He only cared for me to be his scapegoat." Emma didn't break eye contact as she stated the facts.

"But you remember how it felt, before the betrayal, to feel like the most important woman in the world to him." Regina said. "And you've been running from it ever since. Is that why you're here, Miss Swan? Running from love, straight into the arms of the woman you've deemed incapable of it?"

"Shut up." Emma said, closing the gap between them. She placed her hands against warm, flushed cheeks and kissed the woman with the intensity of the frustration she was feeling. When a quiet sigh fell from the woman, Emma pushed up on her knee, swinging her leg across to straddle the woman who was now beneath her. Regina returned her feverish kisses, trailing fingertips beneath her tank top to map out the skin beneath.

Emma broke apart, leaning her forehead against the brunette, trying to catch her breath.

"This is so fucked up," Emma whispered.

"But it's a reprieve," Regina breathed.

That it was. And that was all Emma needed to hear to reunite their lips once more and forget about curses and enchanted forests and family and evil queens. All she needed to focus on was the woman in front of her. The woman whose haunted eyes reflected her own baggage and cut through to her on a deeper level than Mayor to Sheriff, or Evil Queen to Lost Princess.

The quiet that surrounded the cabin led the occupants to believe they were alone. They were much too engrossed with each other to notice the shadowed figure standing amongst the trees.

The hidden spectator observed the scene unfold in an eerie silence. The women, backlit against a bucolic backdrop, moved from the in-frame living room to an offscreen bedroom, ignoring the rest of the world and the consequences they wouldn't be able to out-run. This development was disappointing, if not completely unanticipated. Alas, it seemed it was time to take matters into their own hands. The figure turned and stalked into the darkness, neither woman the wiser.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The sun was blinding as it shone through the eastern-facing window. Regina rolled over, trying to escape the intruding light and buried her face into the shoulder of the Sheriff.

This was… new. Not altogether… displeasing.

Thoughts of propriety, of maintaining appearances, of longing for family, all left Regina's mind as Emma shifted to wrap her arm around her. They were… cuddling. And Regina wasn't pulling away.

They lay like that, without a word between them for as long as she could bear it. Until her chest felt warm and tight, as if there were a war inside fighting to break out.

Regina pulled away, sitting up on the bed and facing away from Emma, leaving the sheets and their night behind.

"Regina…" Emma said, a weak protest. She rubbed her eyes and blinked a couple times. Regina watched Emma wake over her shoulder.

"I'll put on some coffee." Regina said, hating how domestic it sounded as the words were spilling from her mouth.

She pulled on the first shirt and shorts she found. The shirt was Emma's tank top, pulling too tight at her chest. The bottoms were her pyjama shorts, a little too cold for the weather but just fine for the stifling room.

She left before Emma could say anything else and focused on the task at hand.

She stared out the window, listening to the birds chirping and scowled. Across town, Snow would be singing with the birds, blessing the rising sun or whatever else self-righteous heroes start their mornings with. Here, on the outskirts, Regina was considering sending the songbirds up in flames to get them to stop their annoying, chipper squawking.

The kettle whistled, snapping Regina out of her reverie of breaking the necks of songbirds and definitely not how Emma's legs looked tangled in the sheets.

As she made the drip coffee, Emma came out from the bedroom wiping sleep from the corners of her eyes. She didn't bother with pants, opting instead for a loose t-shirt that barely covered her ass.

"Sleep well?" Emma asked as she grabbed two mugs from the cupboard and threw a not-so-subtle glance at the fabric stretched across Regina's chest.

"I slept fine." Regina huffed. She busied herself fixing the coffee, turning away from Emma.

"Plans for the day?" Emma asked with a teasing tone and glint in her eyes.

"You know full well I don't have any." Regina said, unamused. Really, Emma had no business making this childish small talk, certainly not while her hair was still mussed from last night and her long, bare legs were drawing Regina's gaze like a magnetic pull.

"Are you okay… here?" Emma asked, peering over her mug at Regina from across the counter. And god, Emma was looking at Regina like she was her only priority. With a gaze warmer than the steaming coffee she drank, Regina felt her heart melt. Only slightly. And she'd deny it if anyone were to ask.

"Of course I'm okay, I'm not a child." Regina said, waving a dismissive hand.

"You know what I meant." Emma said. She took a step closer and placed a hand on Regina's arm. A sharp breath in, and then Regina pulled away.

"Don't you have someplace to be? Work perhaps?" Regina snapped. "The Storybrook taxpayers certainly aren't paying you to drink coffee and patronize the Mayor."

"Former Mayor, technically." Emma said with a small smile.

"I haven't seen any special elections, Miss Swan." Regina countered. "I think you'll find the protocol to recall the Mayor hasn't been followed. _Technically_ , I'm still in charge."

"Then you can rule from here. Behold, your leafy green subjects." Emma gestured at the view of the forest. She checked the clock, as if remembering the construct of time. "Oh shit, you're right. I gotta go."

She drank her coffee in large gulps, surely burning her throat on the way down, as she hurried back to the bedroom. Through the crack of the not-quite-closed door, Regina could see her hopping around trying to get her pants on while trying to balance her mug in one hand and failing miserably. Regina sighed and looked down at the table. It was definitely _not_ endearing and she was definitely _not_ actively suppressing a small twitch at the corner of her mouth.

This had gone on much too long. If he wasn't careful, they'd all wake up one morning and find themselves back in the Enchanted Forest. It was time to do damage control.

First, some ingredients.

The cabinet had glass doors, dirty from years of neglect. The rusty hinges let loose a high-pitched wail as the doors were forced open. Flecks of old paint fell to the floor. Everything was exactly as he'd left them. Pushing some bottles of dormant brews from their dust-ringed thrones, he was able to find what he was looking for. He held the bottle carefully in his hand, as if the slightest amount of pressure would shatter the glass. A small smile creeped onto his face.

Excellent.

"Home already?" Regina asked. It had hardly been a full day's shift. She'd spent her hours skimming through some of the old books on the shelves, all spy novels or books on backcountry camping. It had been positively dull.

"Someone reported some suspicious activity near Gold's pawn shop." Emma said, taking her jacket off. "It's probably nothing, but David and I agreed one of us should come by and check on you. I drew the short stick."

Regina just hummed in response. She went back to staring at the words on the page in front of her. With a sigh, Regina gave up on feigning interest in this drivel. When she looked up, Emma was sitting next to her on the couch.

"How long must I stay here for?" Regina asked. Emma met her gaze, her eyes soft around the edges.

"Until I can personally guarantee that you are safe from the threat of Gold and any other townsfolk who has the urge to take justice into their own hands." Emma said. She placed a hand atop Regina's where it lay on her thigh.

"Sounds like a life-sentence." Regina scoffed. "However long that may be…"

"Nothing's going to happen to you. I won't let it." Emma said.

"Right, there's no rest for the Saviour." Regina mumbled, pulling her hand away.

"As if you'd need saving." Emma snorted.

"Then let me go." Regina challenged, cocking an eyebrow.

"I can't seem to do that…" Emma whispered. She pushed herself closer on the couch, hands landing in a light caress against Regina's cheek, against her neck. Emma leaned impossibly closer, letting her eyelashes flutter toward the floor. Regina fought to keep her eyes open, to keep from leaning into Emma's embrace. She'd come this far, she'd be damned if she ever went back.

"Don't think I don't know what you're doing." Regina said, pushing Emma away. She needed more room to feel like she could _breathe._

"I'm not doing anything…" Emma said slowly, narrowing her eyes at Regina.

"Don't pretend like you haven't been using me to dissuade your guilt about Henry." Regina spat. "You're just looking to insert yourself into this family so you can act like you didn't give him up."

"Why do you always do this?" Emma asked in a near-shout. She threw her hands up, letting them fall back down to cradle her head. "The second you get scared you lash out and push everyone away."

"You're not all high and mighty, Saviour." Regina growled. "Whenever things get tough you shut down and compartmentalize it away. Try to act like it never happened. You put people in boxes and let them collect dust so you can act like you walk through life unscathed."

"That is not true!" Emma argued. "You've been too busy putting up walls to actually get to know me at all!"

"I know you just fine. The reluctant Saviour, desperate for a family yet pushing away the one she has." Regina said. She rose to her feet. "Have you even bothered to figure out what Rumpelstiltskin is planning or have you been too busy trying to wedge yourself between me and Henry?"

Emma's eyes flashed but she didn't say anything.

"Forget this. I'm not staying here. I can do a better job protecting myself, the way I always have. Alone." Regina said, stalking off toward the door.

"This is still the safest spot for you." Emma said.

"You won't even tell me where _this_ is!" Regina said, exasperated. But she stopped heading for the exit.

"This is my house." Emma said quietly.

"What?" Regina asked, her voice dropping to match Emma's decibel. She turned around to face her.

"Well, it was Graham's but he was going to rent it to me before he died. Before you killed him." Emma added. "The paperwork was all signed, but everything was such a whirlwind, I didn't tell anyone and I didn't move in."

"You idiot." Regina muttered. This was it. This was what she got for trusting other people to do their job.

"Regina, stop it." Emma said, fire returning to her. "I've had enough of you—"

"You idiot, who do you think owns all the real estate in this town?" Regina interrupted. "Rumpelstiltskin makes it his business to know everything happening in this wretched place. You can be damned he's done his due diligence keeping up with rental agreements. It's a miracle he hasn't come to kill me yet. I'm sure he's plotting something because he damned well knows of this place and will have connected the dots a week ago."

"I…" Emma started. Her face paled.

"As usual, I'm left cleaning up your mess, Saviour." Regina snapped. She grabbed her coat and slammed the door behind her.

Emma stalked over to the Pawn shop, her shoulders tense and her vision tainted red.

Of course Gold knew about the safe house. Emma couldn't believe she'd been such an idiot. Regina had every right to be pissed at her. She'd had one job and she'd fucking failed.

Well, she was going to right this wrong. The old fashioned way. The way she'd settled disputes before she'd had the weight of the Saviour thrust on her shoulders. Before magical curses and soul-sucking demons and Evil-Queen-turned-family.

She was going to fix this. She wasn't running away. Or compartmentalizing. She was going to find Gold and end this once and for all.

"Gold!" Emma shouted, opening the door with more force than was necessary. The glass door reverberated in its frame.

She walked past the counter, going right for the back room. Old windmill figurines, and unicorn mobiles, and pairs of dolls watched her go by. But she had eyes only for the curtain that fell loosely from the door frame, separating Emma from her target.

She pushed the curtain to the side dramatically, hitting her hand on the door frame.

"Gold, you and I need to—" Emma stopped mid-sentence, her voice trailing from unbridled fury to breathless.

All the air had left her lungs. She took a deep breath, or rather she tried. She succeeded only in gasping on nothing. There was a pain in her chest, it felt like her heart was being pulled into all directions.

She fell to the ground. Her hands reached out, trying to gain purchase on the wall behind her. A smear of red paint appeared on the wall. No, not paint. Emma registered a dull pain in her left hand. She brought it closer, noticing a cut that had drawn blood. She blinked at her palm, then at the doorframe she'd just walked though. Hiding behind the folds of the curtain, a nail sparkled in the light. No, not light. Everything was getting dark, hazy around the edges.

She heard footsteps but couldn't place them. The bottom of a wooden cane came into view. Emma used all the strength she could muster to turn her head up at the figure. Gold smirked down at her, a wolf staring at the sheep he'd herded into a corner.

"You called, dearie?"

* * *

A/N: Look! A wild update in it's natural habitat! Thank you for your patience, again. And thank you all for following along this journey!


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Regina was on the offensive. Tired of hiding away and wasting her days staring at trees and obnoxious woodland creatures or trying to power through those novels Emma considered literature. A small shiver of disgust traveled down her spine.

She glared at her vault. The books, the trinkets scattered on shelves, none of them were going to help her defeat Rumpelstiltskin. Of course, if she'd had something with her from the Enchanted Forest that was capable of defeating the Dark One, she wouldn't have lived 28 years under his thumb in Storybrook.

She stormed out of her vault, not knowing where she planned on going. Her fingers flexed, her jaw set. Frustration coursed through her veins, burning the fear that had been lingering.

As soon as she reached the surface, she felt her phone start to vibrate incessantly. She whipped it out and squinted at the screen.

Three missed calls from David.

Seven texts between Henry and Snow.

She scrolled through the increasingly frantic messages. Dread sat heavy in her stomach.

 _Regina, I know you don't like being cooped up but the safehouse is for your protection. You can't just leave. Is Emma with you?_

 _Hey mom, where'd you go? Gramps is looking for you._

 _I mean, everyone knows you were only choosing to stay in the safe-house. It's not like they could force you to stay there now that you have your magic. But Gramps is getting worried._

 _Are you with Emma?_

 _Mom, seriously. Now Grandma's worried and you know how she gets._

 _Mom! It's been hours. Where are you and Emma?_

 _Regina, answer me!_

Regina dialed the number she regrettably had on speed dial.

"David—" Regina started.

"Regina! Thank god. I mean, you're supposed to be under house arrest, you can't just leave. Are you with Emma?" David interrupted.

"David, we both know that cabin was an honour system. What's happened. Why is everyone worked up?" Regina asked.

"I went to take my shift at the cabin and you weren't there!" David said. "And Emma wasn't at the station when I checked and isn't answering her phone—"

"Regina, put Emma on the phone!" A slightly shrill voice came through the line. No doubt Snow had ripped the device out of her husband's hands. "You two can't just sneak off into the woods for hours without telling anyone! What if there'd been hikers walking by? Dear god, what if there'd been children? And when I find out what you did to my daughter to make her leave her good sense behind and allow you to seduce her, of all things, my I'm gonna—"

"Emma's not with me, Snow." This time Regina was to the one interrupting. The incessant babbling was grating on her ear drums but didn't distract her from the dread growing roots and growing in her chest. "And the forest is the last place I'd fornicate with your daughter. Too much dirt getting in unwanted places."

"Wha—?" Was all the response from the other end.

"Put David back on, Snow." Regina said with a roll of her eyes.

"Regina, did I hear that right?" David asked.

"Emma's not with me, David." Regina confirmed.

"Tell me you know where she is." David said.

"David, where have you looked for her?" Regina continued, brushing past his plea.

"I checked the station, the diner, did some patrols of the main square, checked the loft." David rattled off.

"I need you to organize a search party. Get Ruby and Granny to comb the woods." Regina instructed.

"It was Rumpelstiltskin, wasn't it?" David asked.

"Well, it certainly wasn't me." Regina scoffed. Rumpelstiltskin, who had a vendetta against her, who was determined not to return to the Enchanted Forest, who couldn't resist a dramatic flair or a poetic touch. Regina blinked. "David, meet me at the library."

Regina paced outside of the library doors. She was the first one there, as usual. Was no one in this town punctual? Had she not emphasized the urgency of this situation? A small voice chimed in from the back of her head, reminding her that not everyone had the power to transport themselves anywhere instantaneously. Regina brushed off the annoying voice that sounded disconcertingly like Emma's.

She pushed open the doors with a huff, stalking past the empty reception desk to the disguised elevator. She raised her hands in front of her and with a slight turn of the wrist… stayed in place in front of the doors.

Well, it appeared Rumpelstiltskin had the foresight to take the most basic counter-protections. While inconvenient, it all but confirmed Regina's hunch. They were in the right place. Now, she just had to wait for the Charming, stuck-at-the-hip duo to take their sweet time getting there.

She wandered absent-mindedly past the bookshelves, trailing her fingers across the spines of books that had been recently dusted. She glanced down at the titles, noticing they'd been reorganized as well. _A Fisherman's Guide to the Great Lakes_ caught her eye. She closed them, was brought back to the wooden cabin, with eclectic blankets and scents of pine and coffee grounds.

The doors slammed against the adjacent walls as they were forcefully opened. Finally.

"Took you long enough." Regina said. David's narrowed eyes were her only greeting.

"We came as fast as we could!" Snow exclaimed, her voice slightly higher than usual. It reminded Regina of her days as a newlywed, waiting on a young Snow's beck and call.

"Let's not waste more time then." Regina said curtly. She walked back over to the concealed elevator, revealing it's inner mechanisms. "David, I'll need you to stay and operate the elevator. You lower us down, and when I give you the signal, bring us back up."

"Regina, you haven't even told us why we're here." David said.

"I thought we weren't going to waste time." Regina waved a dismissive hand and walked into the elevator. When Snow didn't immediately follow, she raised an eyebrow. The other woman spurred into action, skittering to stand at her side.

The ride down was agonizingly slow, full of sudden drops and sporadically jerking to a halt. By the time the floor touched ground, Regina was feeling slightly nauseous.

The two women hurried from the elevator, putting some distance between them.

"She's not here." Snow said, deflated.

"She is." Regina countered. She began walking toward the cliff edge and peered over. Lower down, on a small lip, barely large enough for two people to stand across, jutted from the cliff face. On it, precariously balanced, was the remnants of a glass coffin. The cover was only wire frame and wouldn't keep out any dirt had it been buried six feet under. As it was, about 13 feet below ground level, it wasn't dirt the figure within needed protection from.

Snow had joined Regina and when she spotted what Regina's gaze had fixed on, she let out a small whimper.

"Rumpel was always unable to resist a poetic parallel." Regina said quietly. Snow just turned her head and blinked. "We'll have to climb down. Carefully. Step where I step."

Regina held her body close to the rocks, tentatively putting her weightless foot on a rock sticking out on the cliff. It crumbled away, falling into the deep cavern below. Regina let out a sigh and tried the next one. This one held her weight and she lowered herself slowly. It was like this that they descended toward the coffin.

"Emma!" Snow's exclaimed in a high pitched wail as she touched down on the ledge. Regina stayed very still, not wanting to let the wave of emotion crashing internally to cause her to sway and lose her footing.

Emma was laying in the broken glass coffin, her skin ghostly white as her mother's had been under the sleeping curse, sitting loosely against her bones with the weight of years that hadn't passed. Her hair had dulled and greyed, falling limply against the pillow beneath her head. A sheen of sweat adorned her temple and her fingers kept twitching in response to invisible stimuli. Her eyelids were screwed shut, her eyes flickering back and forth beneath them. Regina could only guess at the horrors projected onto them. Snow surrounded one of Emma's fluttering hands and a shudder passed through her whole body. A shaky sigh left chapped lips.

"What did he do to her?" Snow turns to Regina, eyes wide and watering.

"A curse," Regina stated. "A long forgotten curse. I hadn't thought any magic-wielding individual alive today would know it. Of course, the Dark One has lived many lives. Of course he'd know."

"Regina, tell me you have the antidote. That you can save her." Snow said. Again, she was brought back to a princess who was too young to understand love and desperately wanted a mother. She'd been filled with deep resentment and hatred at any request or demand from the small royal. This time though, there was nothing more she desired than to be able to say yes without a doubt in her heart.

"I'll do my best." Regina said. "We'll have to take her to my vault."

"Regina…" Snow paused. "How are we going to get her out of here?"

Regina looked over the top of her book, feeling years of gritty neglect coming off in her hands. She gazed into the adjoining room, where Emma had been placed on a bed of high thread-count sheets and frilly pillows that would have been more at home in the Charming's castle. She'd been filled with _what-ifs_ and small words sitting heavy on the back of her tongue and she'd conjured what she imagined Emma would have slept on if she'd not been ripped away from her mother's arms at birth.

It had taken reinforcements and a makeshift pulley system to retrieve Emma from the glass coffin in the depths of the library. Regina had attempted to draw upon her magic to raise Emma up to the elevator, but she felt blocked from it, unable to call upon her magic to do her bidding like a bad connection. Snow had tried to cradle Emma in her arms as she secured herself into the harness that definitely wasn't up to code. But as she swayed dangerously, Regina knew the slight woman wasn't strong enough to hold her adult daughter.

 _For Gods sake, you're going to drop her._

And that was how Regina had found herself holding onto the frail Saviour for dear life as the seven dwarves pulled at the rope. Regina had one arm around Emma's waist, the other wrapping up to hold the back of her head. Their legs bumped against the cliff face, causing small rocks to dislodge and fall. If Regina strained hard enough, she could almost hear a whispered _Regina_ among the echoes of rocks hitting the bottom. Despite Tom's persistent sneezing causing the rope to jerk unpleasantly on the trip, they were successfully pulled up.

A small sob brought Regina back to the present. Henry had joined his grandparents by Emma's side. Regina had been scouring her books for hours, with the Charmings taking turns hovering over her shoulder. Nothing in them held the answers. She knew they wouldn't; they all were written long after this curse had been thought to be extinct. But she'd looked anyway.

 _"_ _What happened to her?"_ David had asked when they'd first surfaced, echoing his wife's earlier question.

 _"_ _This is old magic. A curse to make the soul weary and to age the body. She's still there, she can hear us, maybe even respond but it would take a stamina she doesn't have."_

Regina had heard about cursed folk of legends. They'd withered away, living out their days as if each were their last. They lived out their lives on their death beds as their loved ones grieved for years, decades even. They watched the world pass them by; they watched their loved ones stand still. It was not a fate she'd wish on her worst enemy. She glanced over at Snow. At least, not anymore.

Regina let out a sigh and slammed the book shut. She placed her head in her hands, elbows knocking the book off the table to lean on its surface. She allowed herself only a moment before she bent to retrieve the spell book. Her fingers brushed over the ink, tracing ancient lettering that she'd overlooked before.

A spell, a counter-curse really. One to restore youth snatched by time, not by magic. But if there was even the possibility… It was a long shot.

What was the cost of this spell? Was it greater than the cost of not trying?

Henry watched as his mother prepared an intricate potion. Part of him longed to have been able to learn magic, to have learned sword fighting and horseback riding and waltzing. He could have been one of the protagonists in the fantasy novels he'd been reading since he first learned how, sounding out words with his mom before bed.

Now, he could only watch as him mom tried to save his ma. She had a look of determination on her face. Every time it slid into worry or frustration, she looked back at Emma and it slipped back in place.

He knew what his role was in this. Despite desperately wanting to be making the potion alongside his mom, he knew his part was to provide the price. So he waited patiently with his grandparents, Snow holding him to her side in a half-hug and David pacing back and forth across the room.

Time passed slowly, but no one spoke lest their voice broke the spell of silence that seemed so crucial to the success of Regina's potion. Regina had, of course, dispelled such a ridiculous notion but Grams and Gramps were suspicious folk. Henry wondered if it was a relic of the customs from the Enchanting Forest or just a habit picked up from spending their early adulthood on the run.

Finally, Regina brought the glass into the room. The chalice was made of crystal, but the liquid within shone bright white. She approached him and nodded. It was time.

Henry took the knife from his mom's other hand and poked the tip into his left pointer finger. A droplet of blood leaked onto the blade and rolled off, falling into the potion. The moment his blood hit the potion, it turned deep red and began to bubble and fizz.

Regina cupped her hand against his cheek, giving a sad smile. She then closed her eyes and reached for his hand. Warmth and energy and _love_ crawled toward his cut and when he looked down, there was no trace of any injury.

He approached the bed with his mom and watched as she lifted Emma's head off the pillow, gently raising the chalice to her lips and tipping it back slowly.

There was a collective intake of breath as Emma reflexively swallowed the drink.

Emma's chest rose, taking in a shaky breath and fell again.

And nothing.

"It didn't work." David said, resigned. He put words to the disappointment that settled heavy in the air.

"I told you it was a long shot." Regina mumbled. Snow glared at her, as if she'd purposefully withheld the antidote to prolong her suffering. Indeed, there was a time she would have. But she was just as desperate for Emma to return to mocking her and giving her a triumphant smirk when Regina suppressed a chuckle.

"You tried." David said, acknowledging that his wife's hurt feelings were not by Regina's hand. "I guess that's it."

"No! Heroes don't give up!" Henry said, his voice faltering with the effort of fighting back tears.

"Henry…" Regina began, not sure what words could possibly bring him comfort.

"No! We don't give up. Emma would never turn her back on us." Henry protested. "There's gotta be another way."

"I've tried everything, Henry." Regina said, reaching out to him.

"Then I guess you're not a hero." Henry spat, his grief quickly turning to anger. "I thought you could be, I thought you could try to be good but you'll always be the Evil Queen."

The words cut deep into her, pulling at her heart. She took a step back. She knew he was lashing out in anger, that his words didn't necessarily ring true though they struck a chord within her own self-doubt. She was vaguely aware of the Charmings speaking.

"Henry, you're mother's done everything she could."

"We can still ask Mother Superior, maybe she'll know something."

Footsteps echoed off the walls, growing distant but Regina barely registered them. She walked back over to where Emma lay on the bed and sat beside her.

Of course the spell hadn't worked. It was a new magic, a magic of vanity and frivolity. Of course it would be no match for an old magic that knew only desperation and hope, hatred and love.

Regina blinked down at Emma. She took a withered hand in both her own.

Growing up in the Enchanted forest, Regina had always marveled at how it was the same iron forged into armour to protect the bravest knights that would create links in the chains that held the most villainous of prisoners. Well, Regina had long since surrounded her heart in iron. To weather the years as the miller's daughter's daughter, the heartbreak of losing Daniel, the duties of being a Queen. But it was only now that Regina started to wonder who that iron wall was protecting.

"Gods, Emma how did we end up here?" Regina whispered. "When I cast the curse, I swore I'd never look back, that I'd never go back."

Regina blinked away the feeling of impending doom. She brushed away a stray wisp of hair from Emma's wrinkled forehead.

"I cast that curse to get my revenge, to get my happy ending. And, _fuck—_ " Regina shook her head and let out a short chuckle void of humour. "Never did I think it would be so completely entwined with you."

There was no more stalling. Nothing else left to do.

Regina caressed Emma's cheek, grazed her thumb across her cheekbone. She bent down and let their lips meet.

A pulse of pure, light magic shot through her but Regina hardly noticed. What she did notice was Emma's gaunt cheek growing plump beneath her hand, a heartbeat getting stronger, and lips that began kissing her back.

"Regina," Emma said into her mouth, not breaking away to speak. "You saved me."

A wind picked up around the two of them, but they ignored it. They kept exchanging light kisses, murmuring each other's name as tears of relief blurred their vision.

"Ma!"

The two women were startled from their own little world, breaking apart to turn toward Henry who was panting heavily. He was quickly joined by Snow and David, wide-eyed and in awe.

Regina detangled herself from Emma and stood from the bed.

"How…?" Snow started.

"She broke the curse." Emma said, sounding just as shocked as her parents looked.

"Why are we back?" David asked, directing his question to Regina. She felt very calm. This was the inevitability she'd prepared herself for the moment she'd seen Emma in that broken glass coffin.

Their lives were never their own. Subject to prophecies and curses and powerful men pulling the strings behind the curtain. It was always going to end this way.

"Back?" Emma asked, her brow furrowing as she faced Regina.

"I think you'll find, dear, that we've returned the Enchanted Forest." Regina sighed.

"But, you said it was impossible." Snow gasped.

"True Love's Kiss," Emma whispered, a dawning realization on her face.

"An impossible pairing," Regina acquiesced. She locked eyes with Emma, there was no one else in the room in that moment. "The Evil Queen and her Saviour."

Regina saw the fear begin to claw at Emma. She'd been ripped from her home, to a place she'd never chosen—to a woman she'd never chosen. It hit her like a slap to the face.

Regina picked up a pebble, wincing as she cut her hand and let her blood drip down. The pebble shimmered in a purple glow before returning to its dull grey texture.

"Here, Henry. So you'll always be able to find me." Regina pressed the pebble into Henry's hand with both of hers. She wrapped him in a hug and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

"What? Where are you going?" Emma asks, all fear and love and concern and resentment.

"It's like you said, jurisdiction. It was one thing when my crimes were worlds away, kept in the abstract. But we're back in the Enchanted Forest and here, the Evil Queen doesn't get a happy ending." Regina gave a small smile that didn't reach her teary eyes.

"Goodbye, Emma." Regina said.

"Regina, don't…" Emma started.

She was interrupted by Regina's hands cupping her face, thumb tenderly stroking her cheekbone…

…and oh god Regina's lips taste the way _I need you_ feels.

"Don't leave me." Emma finished, her audience a cloud of purple smoke where her favourite foe had once been.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Every fibre in Emma's being wants to chase after Regina.

Her feet carry her forward without thinking. She runs out of the vault, through corridors. She finds an exit. She flies out the doors and runs into the middle of a clearing. Emma only makes it a few more steps before her brain catches up. She doesn't know where to start.

She looks at the unfamiliar trees, so much taller than anything she'd seen in Boston, Tallahassee, Storybrooke.

Any of the numerous towns she'd wandered into and left in the rear-view mirror of her yellow Bug over the years.

They filter the sunlight, throwing a shadow that is eerie and warm and empty. She looks back at her parents, who'd followed her out at a slower pace.

Emma's breathing heavy, the air around her thick and it gets faster and faster. There's too much oxygen here and she is getting lightheaded. No. Not oxygen.

Magic is everywhere here. She knows that's what it must be. It's invisible tendrils caress her cheek, the curve of her neck, and it's palpable. It smells like a kitchen after baking, a crisp summer day. It's the way she'd felt when Regina had teleported away and she knows, she _knows_ this magic.

She closes her eyes, listening to her own heartbeat in her ears, aware of the tips of her fingers and the blades of grass beneath the soles of her shoes. She tries to… she doesn't know what she's trying to do.

She opens her eyes again and just tries to breathe.

"That's everyone here and accounted for." David said. A newfound authority made his voice deeper. He embraced it like an old friend.

Emma sat at the round table. This is all too much. She's in the room she'd watched on TV when her one-time foster brother had stolen a VHS of _The Sword in the Stone_ and they had stayed up past midnight to watch it, hours after their foster father's drunken snores had filled the night air and their foster mother's light sobs had stopped.

It could have been considered comical. Half the fairy-tale creatures around the table had opted for their clothing of the yesteryears while the other half remained in jeans and stretched cotton t-shirts.

They talked of farms and irrigation systems, of kingdoms and villages. They spoke of a history Emma wasn't familiar with and she'd never felt more out of place. She sat next to Henry, who was fiddling with the enchanted stone, turning it over in his with a furrowed brow.

He held it to his heart and closed his eyes. He looked like he was focusing on keeping all the air in the room inside his lungs. His face turned pink, a small sweat broke out on his forehead.

Emma brushed his hair from his eyes. He jumped at her touch, glaring at her for breaking his concentration. She just gave a small smile of solidarity and drew him into her side.

"We'll find her." Emma whispered.

Emma and Henry were in the vault. Emma, acutely aware of the beating hearts in boxes she can't open, closed her eyes and tried again.

She held that damn pebble and wondered how this godforsaken rock was supposed to lead her to Regina. She concentrates on it, feels the tension build inside her.

 _Magic is feeling, Emma._ Henry had quoted it over and over. He'd been doing nothing but flipping through the book of fairy tales (because of course that book had made it back; not an Xbox or a toilet or a fridge but that _book_ had made it to the Enchanted Forest) and flipping the pebble in the air for days.

He'd taken the bedroom in the tallest tower and Emma saw how he gazed longingly out the window, aching to explore the land he'd been dreaming of this past year, before hastily returning to the task at hand.

Magic is feeling.

Well, Emma was certainly feeling emotions. It was hard to keep track of any one feeling to hone in on it and just focus.

Emma let out a cry of frustration, blinking back tears and her reflex to throw that rock at the mirror on the far wall.

Instead, she set it down on a nearby table and sighed.

"I don't understand," because it didn't make sense that Regina would leave them a useless rock. She'd _said_ they'd be able to find her and it had felt like a promise.

"Maybe we've been doing it wrong…" Henry said quietly. Emma looked over at Henry, he was slowly approaching the table.

"We were hardly given any direction!" Emma said, defensively. "Just that we'd always be able to find her."

"Not we." Henry said cautiously, apprehension in his eyes. He reached out to the pebble, took in a deep breath and closed his eyes and…

"Henry!"

He was gone.

Emma runs.

She didn't talk to her parents, to Ruby or Archie. She just ran from the vault and didn't look back.

First Regina, now Henry. The only thing holding the pieces of her heart together is the hope that the pebble did it's fucking job and took Henry to Regina. And without any detour.

Emma had been living in the Enchanted Forest only a week, and it was enough to know that there were dangers that lived in the woods. Ones even the former fugitive Snow White was unprepared for. This land had been changed in the curse. Without the ruling class of humans, dwarves, and fae, there was suddenly room for an uprising of ogres, ghouls, monsters of lakes and of mountain tops.

There had been whispers over dinner, from scouts or hunters who'd returned to the home base with tales of terror. Nervous glances exchanged as they silently acknowledged a reality they weren't ready to face. Hunting groups were ordered to stay within a tight perimeter. Scouts were confined to the walls of the castle.

But none of that mattered. Emma was only thinking of the dangers her son could be in and it didn't matter that she didn't have a plan. She'd figure it out.

Her legs dragged heavy beneath her, sloppy footing snapped branches beneath her. Emma couldn't say how long she'd been walking through the woods. It could have been hours.

The sun was setting, the flat light obscuring divots and raised roots on the path before her. A crow cawed loudly, piercing the evening air. Emma jumped, caught her foot on the obscured underbrush and fell.

The ground was wet, leaving damp dirt on her clothes that wouldn't brush off. Great.

There was a scuffle behind her. Something moved. Emma scrambled to her feet and whipped around. She saw nothing.

Emma slowly backed up, before turning and running at a sprint.

She passed trees, hitting branches and swiping leaves from her eyes. But she didn't stop.

Ahead, there was a small opening in the face of a hill; a cave.

Emma honed in on her target. She just had to make it to the cave. Then she'd be safe.

Of course, there was no guarantee that the cave was unoccupied, nor that whatever was behind her would just follow her inside, back against a corner. But she knew what the alternative was and she wouldn't likely survive it.

Emma whipped into the cave and pressed her back against the wall. She willed her heart to start beating slower, she was sure whatever was out there would be able to hear it. She held her breath, trying to compensate for her heavy breathing. She listened.

It was quiet.

Emma stayed there for several minutes before she peered out around the opening of the cave. There was no movement outside. And she hadn't been killed on arrival, which was a good sign regarding potential tenants of the cave.

Emma let out a shaky breath. He mouth tasted like copper and her saliva ran like water. She bent over, spitting onto the ground and took another breath.

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw the tight fit of the cave. Enough room to lie down, perhaps two across. Maybe enough room to make a fire and sit beside it. There was a small pit, with remnants of charcoal that indicated it had been used as such. There were a few items in the corner, a flask with a shoulder strap, a sword with a dull blade.

Someone had stayed here. Maybe they had gone out to scavenge for food and become someone else's dinner. Maybe they were out now, on their way back.

Emma ventured outside the cave, grabbing some branches quickly before rushing back to the cave. If she were to await the return of her unintended host, she'd at least be warm.

She picked up a flint stone that had been discarded on the ground. It took many attempts, but she was able to make a spark. Emma tended a small fire, wondering whether the cave-dweller would be reasonable. Whether Emma could persuade them that killing her was not in their best interest.

The fire burned through the branches quickly, dwindling into embers. Emma's eyelids were so heavy. Surely, a moment of rest would be alright.

She closed her eyes.

A shriek pierced the air. Emma straightened from where she'd been leaning against the wall. The cry came again, but it wasn't drenched in fear. It was… joyous.

A shrill giggle followed closely behind.

Emma got up, slowly venturing to the lip of the cave. It was dark, moonlit illuminating the trees. Emma looked to the sky and found it clouded. She couldn't see the face of the moon at all.

Emma looked back at the light that seemed to illuminate the woods. It was distant, with a slight blue glow.

Emma walked closer, treading cautiously until she reached the edge of a clearing. She peered from behind a tree and saw that the light wasn't from moon or starts, but from women. There were a half dozen women dancing in a circle with a soft blue light surrounding them like an aura.

They spun and twirled to music that hit no ears but their own. It was mesmerizing. Emma glanced across the clearing and saw a deer, a wolf, a mouse, all frozen. They were transfixed on the sight before them.

Emma unconsciously took a step forward, stepping on dried leaves that crackled beneath her feet. It startled her from the reverie she didn't realize she was in. She glanced back, only a second to check that she'd not been heard, but she felt the draw to stay and watch. It pulled at her, deep and guttural. She ripped her gaze away, forced herself to take a step back.

Once she was about ten feet away, Emma could no longer feel the tendrils of temptation to go back. She wouldn't go back again. Not tonight, not any other night. She wouldn't risk being imprisoned in a gaze, watching ethereal women sway when she was supposed to be finding her family.

By the time morning broke, Emma had long been awake, thinking of Henry, of Regina. When she'd been able to find reprieve, her fitful rest was plagued with apples that glowed blue and dark eyes that watched her from the trees.

The days were not long here, though there was no snow or cold weather. Emma was unaccustomed to the hot, bright sun that only lasted eight hours of the day. If she were to make progress, she'd have to leave.

She grabbed the old sword and the flask, figuring if their owner had not returned for them last night that they had been abandoned. She'd give them a good home on her quest.

It was hours before Emma reached a stream. The woods looked ever the same, but she could hear the sound of rushing water, crashing against rocks and falling in a froth. She hurried over, eager to drink and fill her flask.

She was not built for this. God, she didn't even like camping. She feared the state she would be in by the time she found Henry. She'd be in full caffeine-withdrawal, no doubt. In which case, Henry wouldn't even be happy to see her cranky ass.

Emma felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She didn't hear any disturbance, or see anything out of the ordinary but she _felt_ it.

She placed a hand on the hilt of the sword at her hip and slowly turned around. She was face-to-face with a man. Well, a short, green-coloured man with skin like worn leather and claws at the ends of stubby fingers.

Emma's eyes widened in shock. The man bared his pointed teeth.

Emma launched into action, flailing her sword in his direction. He was quick on his feet, too quick. Suddenly he was five feet away and sprinting towards her. She stepped out of his way just in time.

The speed, the claws, the skin. A bell rang in the recess of her mind. A goblin.

Emma swung her sword again, this time with both hands. It missed the goblin, who was already ten feet away, but it lodged into the heart of an oak tree. An echo of a scream surrounded Emma. She tried to pull her sword out from the trunk, not noticing the faint glow.

What had her father mentioned about goblins?

Emma gave the sword another tug and it released from the bark. The goblin was running back her way. Emma looked around frantically, seeing the river to her back and having no place to run.

Water. They didn't like water. Goblins, they couldn't swim.

Emma darted into the current, letting it drag her downstream, away from the goblin. He started to chase along, before giving up.

Emma exited on the far shore, just to be safe.

She laid down on the trench, letting the adrenaline leave her system. That had been close.

Emma pulled herself back up, refusing to wallow when she was burning daylight. She could only imagine how Henry was faring, alone and scared in these woods filled with the unexplainable ( _it's magic, mom_ she heard in the back of her mind). Emma gave her head a shake. No. She refused to entertain the notion of Henry not being drawn to Regina immediately. He was safe. He was waiting.

Emma started to walk again, and nearly slammed into a something. No, someone. They'd appeared as if from the forest itself. A woman, tall and slender, robes tossed haphazardly over shoulders, barely staying in place.

"Uh, hi." Emma said. "I'll just be on my way."

She made to step around her but was caught by a hand on her wrist. Emma looked down. A hand that looked a little blue.

She looked up in alarm and saw she was now surrounded by carbon copies of this woman. They began to dance around the one who held her in place.

Emma felt trapped, this time not with longing and reverence, but by an energy that surged through her body, anchoring her to the forest floor.

A bright, blue flash.

Then everything went dark.

Emma blinked, but noticed no change. Her arm was no longer immobilised and she wiped at her eyes with both hands. Nothing.

 _Come on!_

Emma began to run, as if this darkness could be left behind. All it did was cause her to run straight into a tree. She pushed off the tree and headed face-first into another. Whoever said that other senses were heightened when one was lost was full of shit.

She felt dizzy.

She couldn't see.

She couldn't find Henry.

Panic began to set in and she felt it build in her chest. She thought of Henry, lost from her. She thought of Regina, who'd surely kill her if Henry went unfound. She thought of _home._

She smells fresh baking, crisp air by the ocean and fake pine air-freshener.

She feels like she's falling, a hook pulling at her gut and tearing it from her body.

"Ma!"

She knows that voice.

"Henry?" Emma said in a hoarse voice. She took two steps before she tripped. "Henry?"

"Ma, what's wrong?" And yes, that's her son. She heard a slight change in his voice, not the same as _I'm your son_ had sounded.

She felt small hands on her arms, pulling her up. She didn't know where to look, or rather, where to face.

"I can't… I can't…" Emma couldn't finish the sentence.

"Mom!" Thank god, Henry was with Regina. Emma felt a tear slide down her cheek. Thank god, thank god.

"Emma!" A surprised, throaty voice that she'd recognize anywhere washed over her like a tide of relief.

"How did I…" Emma started. The words form, fall out of her mouth and stop. She has too many questions, doesn't know which to ask first.

"Magic, dear." Regina answered, reading her mind like she sees Emma's soul and knows exactly who she is _._ "You're the child of True Love, of you have magic. I felt it in Storybrooke when you placed your hand on my arm and jumpstarted Jefferson's hat." A soft hand landed on her shoulder and she feels _something_.

"Magic." Emma said in wonder. She blinked away more tears and she's acutely aware of it not bring a change in light. "Why can't I see?"

"You can't…" Regina said, awareness dawning on her. Hands moved to her face and Emma let out a sob. "Emma, what happened?"

"I don't, I don't know." Emma rambled. "There was a goblin and I was fighting it with this sword that was no better than a fucking butter knife and I crossed the river because David said goblins won't follow you through it and then suddenly I was surrounded by these women who were fucking luminescent and one grabbed me and they were dancing around us and then I couldn't _see!_ "

Emma gasped for air, placing her hands overtop Regina's.

"Dryads." Regina breathed. The breath grazed her cheek as it went by. "Nymphs of the oak trees. They've been known to be spiteful, cursing their enemies. Usually they are peaceful, only striking out after they've been wronged. What did you do, Emma?"

"Nothing!" Emma protested. "I saw them dancing last night but I walked away!"

"Hm…" The hands dropped from her face and Emma felt cold at the loss. "They don't usually retaliate against voyeurism. Actually, they're sort of into it." Regina let out a soft chuckle.

"Usually their fury is reserved for those who've killed their brethren, or I suppose sistren is more accurate. Nymphs aren't immortal, per se, but they'll live forever, unaffected by age or illness. Only to be put down at the hands of another."

"You said they were nymphs of the oak trees?" Emma asked, hesitantly. Regina hummed. "I may have gotten my sword stuck in a tree while I was fighting the goblin…"

Henry snickered.

"Hey! I didn't grow up here, I don't know how to swordfight!" Emma said, her voice raised in her defense.

"I'd wager that you hit an oak tree," Regina said, taking her hand. "The nymphs typically take their wooded form during the day. Well, unless they have reason for exception."

"Seriously?" Emma exclaimed. She'd been here just over a week and already she'd started a feud with the woodland creatures. God, she couldn't do this. How was she supposed to live here?

She felt frustrated. She was having a hard enough time before, and now she couldn't even—

Soft lips brushed against her own, tasting of apple turnovers and a breath of fresh air.

Emma blinked at the bright light.

She could see.

She saw Regina, her face pulled back only an inch from her own.

"You can't just come to me whenever you need to break a curse, dear." Regina said in a husky whisper. Her words were playful, but her eyes held trepidation.

"You're not just a… a get-out-of-curse-free card to me. You're…" Emma started, before deciding that action would speak louder than words. She placed her hands on Regina's cheeks, drawing her closer and initiating a deep kiss.

"Gross." Henry muttered. Emma pulled back, eyes closed with a smile on her face. "I'm gonna go play World of Warcraft while you guys… do this…"

Emma's eyes shot open.

"World of Warcraft?! In the Enchanted Forest?" Emma yelped. Henry was already halfway to a small house Emma hadn't noticed. She chased after him.

Inside was a perfect replica of her cabin from Storybrooke, complete with a television and an Xbox. Emma turned around in awe, acting like a kid on Christmas. Well, let's be honest, acting like Emma on Christmas.

Regina had followed her in and was smirking as she leaned against the doorframe.

"How did you…" Emma breathed.

"Magic, dear." Regina answered.

"This is… this is amazing," Emma said in wonder. "I didn't think I'd see any modern luxuries again."

"Well, your cabin grew on me during my house-arrest, so I recreated it here." Regina shrugged. "Right down to those damn outdoorsy how-to guides you seem to be obsessed with."

Emma laughed.

"Those were Grahams." Emma said. She walked toward Regina. "But I suppose I'll have to read them now that we live in a forest…"

"Well, I mean, you technically live in a castle." Regina corrected, her face a blank slate. It was Emma's smirk. She wrapped her arms around the impassive, infuriating woman before her. Emma felt her melt into the embrace. Green eyes met brown. Pink lips met red.

"We'll see."

A/N: Thank you to everyone who followed along this journey with me! It was a pleasure writing this, reading all of your lovely reviews and seeing your support. I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I did.


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